Parent Coaching Module 5: Helping your child learn by imitation
"Do what I do!"
“Children learn new skills through watching and imitating others.”
Goal: In this module you will learn the importance of imitating your child and how to teach your child to imitate you.
Why is this important? Imitation is the means by which children (and adults!) learn new skills. Children learn non-verbal communication, language, and social behaviors through watching and imitating others. Imitation also develops empathy, as children mirror the emotions of others. Building strong imitation skills is an essential foundation of all other learning.
What can you do to help your child imitate?
The following sections will take you through the four steps 
that can help you encourage your child to imitate. This includes the rationale for each step, and links to additional reading and videos to support your understanding and illustrate the concepts.
Finally, we have included “Refrigerator Posts” you can download, print and post to your fridge, playroom or anywhere else to use as a handy reminder of ways you can incorporate learning into your daily play and routines.
Click on the following links to view each step teaching imitation.
Step 1: Imitation of sounds
Step 2: Imitation of actions on objects
Step 3: Imitation of gestures and facial expressions
Step 4: Increasing variety of imitation
Module Summary: The goal of this module has been to help you learn ways to encourage your child to imitate sounds, actions on objects, gestures, and facial expressions.
Refrigerator Posts: Download and print these pages to post as handy reminders and suggestions for activities to capture your child’s attention.
Refrigerator posts [PDF]
Refrigerator posts [MSWord]
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