Interpersonal activity emerges during the earliest expressions of play, as the baby chuckles with delight while playing peekaboo with a parent or childcare educator. Such interactions will expand as the baby grows to experience great joy in the interpersonal elements of play, both indoors and outdoors. This leads to the development of gross motor skills, social competence, and empathy.

A quantitative correlational study found a significant positive correlation between motor imitation and the social communication in the context of language understanding. Using a naturalistic home-based play context, results suggest that imitation in 15 to 18-month-old babies has a unique relationship to social communication that is specific to language understanding and separate from verbal expression or gesture.

Besides developing the child’s gross motor development, imitation in daily routines helps with assessing and supporting prelinguistic development.