Imitation: Why is it important and how can you get your child to imitate you?
What is imitation?
Imitation is simply when your little one copies you. There are MANY ways that your child can imitate you: facial expressions, sounds, words, actions, gestures, and more!
Why is imitation important?
When we talk about communication milestones, we often refer to the many stepping stones that lead to first words. Imitation is one of those stepping stones and a very big one at that! The skill of imitation is considered a pre-language skill (or pre-linguistic/pre-verbal skills). Pre-language skills are how your baby communicates with you non-verbally! These fun interactions between you and your child are necessary before your child can begin developing words, as they demonstrate that your baby understands the INTENTION behind communication! Keep in mind, these skills develop over time! Some may appear early in infancy (such as imitation, facial expressions, and eye contact) and others develop later (such as joint attention and use of gestures)!
When will my baby start imitating me?
We get asked about this often (usually referring to verbal skills)! To be honest, there are many different ages and stages for imitation! However, one thing is certain - IMITATION is a critical prelinguistic skill! What does that mean? It means that imitation is one of the skills that your child needs to master before they can begin saying words!
Your infant may start imitating your facial expressions and mouth movements within the first few months of life 💕. Beginning at 3 or 4 months, your infant will start copying cooing sounds! Little ones will continue to copy sounds as they get older and by 6 months, they may be able to imitate your babble sounds. This sets the stage for back and forth interactions and imitation of more advanced verbal skills!
Around 9 months (and sometimes earlier), you may notice your baby imitating your gestures and sounds! And closer to that magical first birthday at 12 months, your baby may attempt to copy actual words!
How can you help your child learn to imitate?
If you want to help your little one work on imitation skills, here are some things you can do:
Spend time face-to-face with your baby
Copy sounds your baby makes and then WAIT to see if they respond!
➤ If they bang on their high chair tray, then you bang on something too.
➤ If your baby makes a sound, repeat the sound exactly as they said it.
➤ With infants, imitate any non-crying sound they make, regardless of where you are!
Make sounds or gestures when you have your baby’s attention, and then WAIT to see if they copy! Be playful and exaggerate some of the sounds, so your baby really attends to you. It helps to hold a toy or stuffed animal near your face to get attention (We really love SmartNoggin)!
If your baby does not copy you, that’s ok! Do the gesture or sound for them and then try again.
Use silly and fun sounds with your child! Sounds are a great way to help toddlers start forming words! Think about all the fun sounds your little one loves and incorporate those into playtime, songs, book time, and conversations! It helps if you say the sounds over and over along with an action. Then give the toy to your child or pause, so they can try it on their own!
Some examples of fun sounds:
“Beep beep!” Vehicle sounds
“Baa!” Animal sounds
“Uh oh! Weeee!” Silly exclamations
“Aaaahhh!” Sounds of surprise
Speech tip:
Think about sounds that your baby can see on your lips, such as b, m, w. Then say silly and fun things that use these sounds. Typically, the sounds that use the lips develop before other sounds and are easier for your child to see and copy!
Ways to use these sounds:
Fish sound: blub blub
Vehicle driving sounds: bump bump bump
Siren sounds: woo wooo
Playing with cars: weeeeeeee
