Imitation In Young Children Research Articles

Exploring links among imitation, mental development, and temperament.

Links among imitation, performance on a standardized test of intellectual development, and laboratory-assessed temperament were explored in 311 24-month old twin pairs. Moderate phenotypic associations were found between imitation, mental development, and temperament dimensions of Affect/Extraversion and Task Orientation. Covariance between imitation and mental development reflected genetic and shared environmental influences, whereas associations between imitation and temperament reflected genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influences. Genetic factors linking imitation and temperament were the same as those linking temperament and mental development. Nonetheless, approximately 62% of total genetic variance on imitation was independent of genetic influences on mental development and temperament, suggesting that young children's imitation is not simply an index of general cognitive ability or dispositional style but has many underlying genetic influences that are unique.

Infants' and young children's imitation of linguistic in-group and out-group informants.

Although children can use social categories to intelligently select informants, children's preference for in-group informants has not been consistently demonstrated across age and context. This research clarifies the extent to which children use social categories to guide learning by presenting participants with a live or video-recorded action demonstration by a linguistic in-group and/or out-group model. Participants' (N = 104) propensity to imitate these actions was assessed. Nineteen-month-olds did not selectively imitate the actions of the in-group model in live contexts, though in-group preferences were found after watching the demonstration on video. Three-year-olds selectively imitated the actions demonstrated by the in-group member regardless of context. These results indicate that in-group preferences have a more nuanced effect on social learning than previous research has indicated.

Validation of Adult Generalized Imitation Topographies and the Emergence of Generalized Imitation in Young Children with Autism as a Function of Mirror Training

We tested 128 adults; male and female ages 19 to 56, for the emission of mirrored or non-mirrored responses in generalized imitation (GI). We found that the adults emitted both. Thus, the emission of non-mirrored responses was not part of the criterion for GI in Experiment 2, where we isolated the effects of using a mirror for training imitative responses on the emergence of GI by children with autism (six children, 3-4 years old). We used an experimental-control group design with a “nested” non-concurrent multiple probe design across participants in the experimental group. Test scores and developmental measures were used to match participants who were then assigned randomly to groups. The numbers of instructional trials were yoked between pairs controlling the amount of instruction. GI emerged for the individuals who received the mirror training, but not for those trained face-to-face. One possibility is that mirror training rotating different responses may result in a class of responding whereas, face-to-face training results in specific responses, which may explain why prior studies were unable to induce GI with typically developing young children. Moreover, given the findings herein, the correspondence between seeing and doing as conditioned reinforcement for GI remains a viable theory.

Video modeling imitation training to support gestural imitation acquisition in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Children with autism struggle to imitate, and this lack of imitative ability is related to the severity of autism symptoms. Teaching children with autism to imitate is a necessary component of intervention as poor imitation ability affects development in a variety of areas including play skills, social skills and language skills. The purpose of this research was to determine whether there is a functional relation between video modeling imitation training (VMIT) and increased gestural imitation in young children with autism. Secondary analyses of collateral gains, specifically language development, gesture, and play skill acquisition, after exposure to VMIT was also conducted. Results indicated that two out of three participants demonstrated an immediate, increased frequency in imitation of gestures viewed on an iPad. All three participants showed gains in receptive language and gestures before treatment. Expressive language and play skills increased for two out of three participants.

The Role of a Model's Age for Young Children's Imitation: A Research Review

The influence of a model's age on young children's behaviour has been a subject of considerable debate among developmental theorists. Despite the recent surge of interest, controversy remains about the nature of peer influence in early life. This article reviews studies that investigated the influence of a model's age on young children's behaviour in the first 5 years of life, and presents an account of seemingly mixed results. We propose that children imitate familiar behaviour for social reasons, such as in order to identify with the model or to communicate likeness. Since age is an important indicator of the degree of being alike, we propose that children are more likely to imitate familiar behaviour from peers. In contrast, we propose that children primarily imitate novel behaviour for learning reasons. Since adults are perceived as being more competent than children, children are more likely to learn from adults. We further suggest that increased peer experience leads children to evaluate peers as valuable resources for learning novel behaviour in domains in which peers are knowledgeable. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Imitation in young children: When who gets copied is more important than what gets copied.

Unlike other animals, human children will copy all of an adult's goal-directed actions, including ones that are clearly unnecessary for achieving the demonstrated goal. Here we highlight how social affiliation is key to this species-specific behavior. Preschoolers watched 2 adults retrieve a toy from a novel apparatus. One adult included irrelevant actions in her demonstration; the other only used actions causally related to opening the apparatus. After both adults took turns demonstrating, 1 left the test room, and the remaining adult gave the apparatus to the child. Children reproduced the irrelevant actions only when given the apparatus by the adult who had demonstrated them, even though the departed adult's actions emphasized how unnecessary these redundant actions were. Our results highlight the specialized skills for participating in cultural groups that have evolved in humans and provide insight into why finding such high fidelity copying in other animals has proven elusive.

Promoting Imitation in Young Children with Autism: A Comparison of Reciprocal Imitation Training and Video Modeling

The inability to imitate is a salient diagnostic marker for autism. It has been suggested that for children with autism, imitation may be a prerequisite skill that can assist in the development of various skills. Using a multiple baseline design across subjects, the purpose of this research was to determine if two interventions, reciprocal imitation training and video modeling were effective in promoting imitation acquisition in young children with autism. Six boys were matched across various features (i.e., age, language, autism severity) and randomly placed in a treatment condition. Results indicated that all six participants increased their imitation skills to varying degrees in both conditions, and imitation maintained and generalized at higher than baseline levels post treatment.

How to Build an Intentional Android: Infants' Imitation of a Robot's Goal‐Directed Actions

This study examined whether young children are able to imitate a robot's goal‐directed actions. Children (24–35 months old) viewed videos showing a robot attempting to manipulate an object (e.g., putting beads inside a cup) but failing to achieve its goal (e.g., beads fell outside the cup). In 1 video, the robot made eye contact with a human before and after it failed the action. In another video, the robot did not make eye contact with the human adult. Only in the former condition did children “imitate” the robot's “intended” but unconsummated actions (e.g., putting beads inside a cup). When the robot did not make eye contact, children performed poorly, at the baseline level. These results suggest that human‐like gaze behaviors, not human‐like morphology, may play an important role in young children's imitation of a nonhuman agent's goal‐directed behaviors.

The Social Role of Imitation in Autism

Individuals with autism exhibit significant deficits in imitation skills. This article reviews the importance of imitation in typical development, focusing on the social function of imitation and its role in the development of social communication skills. Second, it reviews evidence suggesting an association between imitation deficits and social communication impairments in children with autism. Third, it discusses limitations of the current method for teaching imitation that targets only the learning function of imitation. Finally, it describes a new imitation intervention designed to teach the social use of imitation in young children with autism.

Determinants of imitation of hand-to-body gestures in 2- and 3-year-old children.

Twenty children, ten 2-year-olds and ten 3-year-olds, participated in an AB procedure. In the baseline phase, each child was trained the same four matching relations to criterion under intermittent reinforcement. During the subsequent imitation test, the experimenter modeled a total of 20 target gestures (six trials each) interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline trials. In each session, target gestures were selected in a pre-randomized sequence from: Set 1--ear touches; Set 2--shoulder touches; Set 3--midarm touches; and Set 4--wrist touches; subjects' responses to targets were not reinforced. In each target set, half the gestures featured in nursery matching games and were termed common targets whereas the remainder, which were topographically similar but did not feature in the games, served as uncommon targets. The children produced significantly more matching responses to common target models than to uncommon ones. Common responses were also produced as mismatches to uncommon target models more often than vice versa. Response accuracy did not improve over trials, suggesting that "parity" did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer. All children showed a strong bias for "mirroring"--responding in the same hemispace as the modeler. The 2-year-olds produced more matching errors than the 3-year-olds and most children showed a bias for responding with their right hands. The strong effects of training environment (nursery matching games) are consistent with a Skinnerian account, but not a cognitive goal theory account, of imitation in young children.

Teaching imitation to children with autism: A focus on social reciprocity.

Introduction Children with autism exhibit significant impairment in imitation skills (for a review, see Rogers & Williams, 2006; Smith & Bryson, 1994; Williams, Whiten, & Singh, 2004). However, the scope of this deficit is highly debated. Imitation skills do not appear to be uniformly disrupted, but rather limited to specific types of actions and contexts (e.g., Williams et al., 2004). One possible explanation for these discrepancies is that children with autism may have difficulty using imitation for certain purposes. Research on typical development suggests that imitation serves two distinct functions in infancy and early childhood. One is a learning function, through which infants acquire new skills and knowledge, and the other is a social function, through which infants engage in social and emotional exchanges with others (Uzgiris, 1981, 1990). Recently, it has been hypothesized that children with autism may be particularly impaired in their social use of imitation, while the learning function is less impaired (Ingersoll, in press-a; Rogers, Cook, & Meryl, 2005). The possibility that the social use of imitation may be especially disrupted in individuals with autism has significant implications for the treatment of imitation deficits in young children with autism. This paper will address three issues with respect to the imitation skills of children with autism. First, it will review evidence for a specific deficit in the social use of imitation. Second, it will discuss limitations of current methods for teaching imitation which target only the learning function in highly structured contexts, and third, it will describe a naturalistic imitation intervention designed to teach the social use of imitation in young children with autism. Evidence of a Specific Deficit In the Social Use of Imitation There have been two general approaches to investigating the distinction between the two functions of imitation in children with autism. The first approach has been to present actions which represent the different functions in structured or elicitation contexts. The second approach has been to vary the contexts in which the imitation tasks are presented. Studies utilizing each of these approaches are summarized below. Studies Comparing Both Types of Imitation within Structured Elicitation Tasks Specifically, a child is seated across from the examiner in a distraction-free environment. The examiner gains the child's attention, models an action and instructs the child to imitate (e.g., Do this, You do it). Actions that represent the learning function of imitation are typically meaningful actions on objects, whereas actions that represent the social function of imitation have involved body movements and non-functional acts on objects (Rogers, Cook, Young, & Giolzetti, 2005). For example, Hobson and Lee (1999) compared children with autism and developmental delay on an object imitation task in which the experimenter modeled the action in either a harsh or gentle style (i.e., body movements). The children with autism imitated a similar number of goal-directed actions as the developmentally-delayed children. However, they did not imitate the experimenter's style. The authors suggested that children with autism, while capable of imitation as demonstrated in their ability to replicate the goal of the actions (learning function), do not use imitation as a means to identify with others (social function). In other study, children with autism were found to be more likely to imitate actions with objects that produced a sensory effect (flashing lights and sounds) than those that did not (Ingersoll, Schreibman, and Tran, 2003). Typically developing children matched for mental age did not show this discrepancy and imitated all actions equally well. The typically developing children also used more social behaviors during imitation than the children with autism. This suggested that typical children are motivated to imitate by the social feedback (i. …

Developmental Correlates of Different Types of Motor Imitation in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study used a concurrent correlational design to examine associations between three types of motor imitation with objects and three proposed correlates in 32 two- and three-year-old children diagnosed with ASD. Attention-following and fine motor ability were significant, unique correlates of imitation in an observational learning context. Attention-following was a significant correlate of imitation in a direct elicitation context. Social reciprocity was a significant correlate of imitation in an interactive play context. These associations were observed after controlling for general developmental level. Results support previous findings that motor imitation may not reflect a unitary construct for children with ASD and that different skills may underlie the performance of different types of motor imitation. Implications for interventions targeting motor imitation are discussed.

Direct object predictability: effects on young children's imitation of sentences

We hypothesize that the conceptual relation between a verb and its direct object can make a sentence easier ('the cat is eating some food') or harder ('the cat is eating a sock') to parse and understand. If children's limited performance systems contribute to the ungrammatical brevity of their speech, they should perform better on sentences that require fewer processing resources: children should imitate the constituents of sentences with highly predictable direct objects at a higher rate than those from sentences with less predictable objects. In Experiment 1, 24 two-year-olds performed an elicited imitation task and confirmed that prediction for all three major constituents (subject, verb, direct object). In Experiment 2, 23 two-year-olds performed both an elicited imitation task and a sticker placement task (in which they placed a sticker on the pictured subject of the sentence after hearing and imitating the sentence). Children imitated verbs more often from predictable than unpredictable sentences, but not subjects or objects. Children's inclusion of constituents is affected by the conceptual relations among those constituents as well as by task characteristics.

The Effects of Imitation in Young Children's Painting Processes

The Effects of Imitation in Young Children's Painting Processes

Motor imitation in young children with autism: what's the object?

Two studies investigated the nature of motor imitation in young children with autism. Study 1 compared different types of motor imitation in 18 autistic children, 18 children with developmental delay, and 18 normally developing children. Results revealed weaker imitation skills for the autistic group, though all groups demonstrated a similar pattern of performance across different imitation domains. Imitation of body movements was more difficult than imitation of actions with objects, and imitation of nonmeaningful actions was more difficult than imitation of meaningful actions. Study 2 investigated concurrent and predictive relations between imitation and other developmental skills within a sample of 26 two-year-old children with autism. Results suggested that imitation of body movements and imitation of actions with objects represent independent dimensions. Imitation of body movements was concurrently and predictively associated with expressive language skills, and imitation of actions with objects was concurrently associated with play skills. Improvements in both motor imitation domains occurred over a 1-year period.

Young children's imitation of sentence subjects: Evidence of processing limitations.

Elicited imitation was used to determine whether young children's inconsistent production of sentence subjects was due to limitations in their knowledge of English or in their ability to access and use that knowledge. Nineteen young children (age range = I year 10 months to 2 years 8 months ; Mean Length of Utterance [MLU] range = 1.28 to 4.93 ) repeated sentences that varied in length, structure, and type of subject. A competence-deficit hypothesis would predict that children below MLU 3 would differentially omit expletive subjects and subjects preceded by a discourse topic more often than children above MLU 3. That hypothesis was disconfirmed. A performance-deficit hypothesis would predict that children below MLU 3 would omit more subjects from long sentences than short ones, and that the high-MLU children would not show a length effect. That hypothesis was confirmed. Processing limitations, rather than a defective grammar, explain very young children's absent subjects.

Young children's imitation of sentence subjects: Evidence of processing limitations.

Young children's imitation of sentence subjects: Evidence of processing limitations.

Memory and representation in young children with Down syndrome: Exploring deferred imitation and object permanence.

Deferred imitation and object permanence (OP) were tested in 48 young children with Down syndrome (DS), ranging from 20 to 43 months of age. Deferred imitation and high-level OP (invisible displacements) have long been held to be synchronous developments during sensory-motor "Stage 6" (18-24 months of age in unimpaired children). The results of the current study demonstrate deferred imitation in young children with DS, showing they can learn novel behaviors from observation and retain multiple models in memory. This is the first demonstration of deferred imitation in young children with DS. The average OP level passed in this sample was A-not-B, a task passed at 8-12 months of age in normally developing infants. Analyses showed that individual children who failed high-level OP (invisible displacements) could still perform deferred imitation. This indicates that deferred imitation and OP invisible displacements are not synchronous developments in children with DS. This asynchrony is compatible with new data from unimpaired children suggesting that deferred imitation and high-level OP entail separate and distinctive kinds of memory and representation.

The Effects of Age and Developmental Level on Imitation in Children

Forrs, GREGoRY, and LIIKANEN, PIRKKO. The Effects of Age and Developmental Level on Imitation in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 555-558. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of age and developmental level on the use of imitation in children between the ages of 5 and 8 years. It was expected that these factors would interact in influencing imitation in young children and that young children at a higher developmental level would imitate more than their less mature agemates, whereas older children with a higher developmental level would imitate less than their agemates. 40 children were selected on the basis of their age and developmental level. The latter was assessed by examining the schemata employed while Ss were playing with different sets of toys. Each S was then presented a modeling stimulus on television and later given an opportunity to play with the materials seen on television. The predicted interaction was obtained and is discussed within the context of developmental theory.

Young children's imitation and comprehension of sentential singularity and plurality.

The number of the subject is marked in most third-person sentences both in the subject-noun (e.g., " dog/dogs ") and in the verb (e.g., " barks/bark "). The verb inflection for number is redundant with the noun inflection except in those rare instances in which the subject-noun is not marked for number (e.g., " sheep/sheep "). Since the verb inflection for number is rarely crucial for determining the meaning of a sentence, and since number is marked in exactly the opposite manner in regularly formed verbs from the manner in which it is marked in regularly formed nouns, children might be expected to acquire the verb inflection for number relatively late in the course of language development. Sentences in which number was marked in (a) the verb only, and (b) the subject-noun and the verb were presented to a sample of 24 children 4 years of age in both imitation and comprehension tests. The results indicated that the children did not comprehend the verb inflection for number even when the noun was unmarked and the verb inflection was the only cue for number. Despite explicit training on the meaning of unmarked nouns, the children understood the unmarked subject-noun as singular and responded to the entire sentence as if it were singular. At four years of age, the apparent number of the subject-noun is the only effective cue for sentential singularity or plurality.