Imitative skills between birth and six months

Abstract

Changes in the imitative responses of 21 to 167-day-old infants were studied. Eighty-three babies distributed in six age groups were presented with four facial models (protrusion of the tongue, opening the mouth, swelling the cheeks, and closing the eyes) and two manual models (opening-closing the hand and pointing the index finger). Results show that only the facial models elicited an imitative response, with protrusion of the tongue and opening the mouth leading to the largest number of imitations. Age related changes involved a considerable increase of imitation during the second month for all facial models, followed by a progressive decrease until the sixth month for the models protrusion of the tongue and opening of the mouth and an erratic evolution for the models swelling of the cheeks and closing of the eyes. These results are discussed in terms of the intentionality of babies' responses, of motor program selection processes, and constraints on the execution of these programs, and of the capacity to integrate visual and proprioceptive information.