Imitation Without Objects

When your child has learned to imitate about 5 actions that use objects, you can start teaching him to imitate actions that don’t use objects. For some children, it’s easier if you do these actions while still sitting. Raising your arms in the air, touching your head, or clapping your hands are all good examples. Later, you can also teach your child to imitate you as you perform actions out of the chair. These kinds of actions include such as standing up, turning around, sitting down, and walking around the chair.

When your child can imitate many different actions, you can try teaching small movements. We call these small movements “fine motor movements”. These would be movements like making a “thumbs up” sign or sticking out your tongue.

Two-Step Imitation

When your child is good at imitating many different actions, try putting them together. For example, say, “Do this…pause….and this.” When giving the instruction, perform one action each time you say “this.”

Once your child is good at imitation, you will be able to use imitation as a prompt to help him learn other skills. You should continue to practice imitation so when you want to use it to teach other skills, it will work. We will talk more about this later. But a good rule is to keep practicing skills even after your child has learned them well. If you don’t practice new skills once a day, or a few times a week, then your child may forget how to do those skills. You can stop this practice when your child is using them a lot and on his own.

You should be able to use any two of the actions your child can easily imitate when presented one-at-a- time. When the child is first learning this, you can prompt by waiting until he begins the first action before you present the second action. Another way to prompt is to give both instructions but then show him the first action again, right after you finish giving the two-part instruction. In the following clip, the teacher uses both of these prompting strategies with good success.

When teaching two-step imitation, gradually fade out your help by making the pause between your own actions shorter and shorter. Do this until you can present both actions before your child begins to imitate the first one. Your child should respond by imitating both actions in the same order as you did them.

Next: Imitating Sounds and Words