Importance of Imitation Skills

Importance of Imitation Skills

“If we want a flower to bloom we need to water the roots not the flowers”; similarly to develop verbal communication in children, the ability to comprehend the language should be enhanced by fostering pre-verbal skills. This helps children learn the basic rules of communication. Imitation skills are a very essential part of the preverbal skills.

Simply put imitation skills mean “to mimic the behavior of the other person”. They are in fact essential for the development of language skills, social skills and pretend play. The first and foremost thing in the development of the imitation skills is imitating body motor movements like nodding, clapping etc. The imitation of speech sounds comes much later. Your child is ready to learn such skills when they are able to explore the movements of the hands and other parts of their body. Grasping caregivers hand, holding a milk bottle, mouthing toys are the indicators that your baby may be ready for gestural imitation skills.

Few activities to teach gestural imitation skills are –

  • Waving bye-bye
  • Touching your nose
  • Placing your hands on the head
  • Clapping your hands
  • Giving a flying kiss
  • Smiling
  • Opening your mouth

Some activities to promote these skills include – blowing your cheeks and making popping sounds, waving your hand and saying ‘bye-bye’ when you are going out, moving a toy car and saying ‘broom-broom’. Through these activities you are not only building their comprehensive vocabulary but also enhancing their expressive inventory of the sounds.

Infants and children tends to absorb vast amounts of information through the imitation of others behavior. Imitative learning allows your child to learn new behaviors, make observations, then practice and rehearse the behaviors they have seen. This leads to the development of countless new skills. Such skills play a vital role in the behavioral development of the children and the emergence of speech and language skills.

Play with Purpose !!

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