Imitation During Infancy and Toddlerhood

Children imitate others for different reasons based on what they want to achieve.

They copy adults to learn new skills and imitate peers to build social bonds.

Imitation becomes important toward the end of the first year.

Piaget noted that infants first copy visible actions, such as hand or foot movements. By 9 months, they begin copying actions they cannot see on their bodies, such as facial expressions.

Piaget argued that infants under 18 months lack deferred imitation—the ability to copy actions after a delay—because they cannot yet form mental representations.

However, later research showed that 6-month-old infants can imitate actions after short delays.

By 9 months, they can remember a sequence for a month, and by 20 months, they can recall it for up to a year.

Social preferences such as language also guide imitation.

By 14 months, toddlers are more likely to copy people who speak their language.

By 15 months, they favor copying older individuals over same-age peers.

By ages 2 to 3, children imitate both peers and adults, but they copy adults more carefully.