Imitation is a crucial aspect of skill development, because it allows us to learn new things quickly and efficiently by watching those around us. Most children learn everything from gross motor movements, to speech, to interactive play skills by watching parents, caregivers, siblings, and peers perform these behaviors.
Indeed, observational studies of parent-child interactions have shown that parents start to imitate their children’s actions, emotions and facial expressions when the children are still very young
The imitation method of teaching focuses on breaking apart skills into components, providing the learner with a model of the target behavior, and rewarding the learner for demonstrating the response immediately after the model.
