According to Cooper, Heron & Heward (2007), imitation is defined as a physical movement serving as a model with the behaviour occurring immediately (i.e. 3 to 5 seconds) following the model. Both the model and the behaviour must match the format shown (i.e. physical with physical, object with object).
A learner can imitate a variety of ways. These ways include the following:
- Imitation of hand movements (i.e. clapping, waving, pointing);
- Imitation of leg movements (i.e. stomping, standing on one foot);
- Imitation of head movements (i.e. shaking, nodding);
- Imitation of mouth movements (i.e. tongue out, open mouth);
- Imitation with objects (i.e. writing, knocking on door, wearing shoes);
- etc.
Importance of Teaching Imitation
Why is learning how to imitate important? The skill of knowing how to imitate helps learners learn new skills more quickly and efficiently by watching the people around them. It can be utilised to teach life skills (i.e. folding towels); play skills; and social skills; etc.
Based on my personal experience (i.e. having returned back to Singapore from Dubai recently), I did not know how to utilise SafeEntry when heading to the various locations in Singapore. By looking at my family members and observing how they utilised the app to check-in, I was able to imitate their actions on the phone, and taught myself how to utilise SingPass to scan in and out prior to generalising this new skill to different locations independently.
This can also be seen when a learner in school is unable to comprehend an instruction provided by their teacher. They would be able to observe their peers and imitate their actions to queue up and/or complete a worksheet dependent on the instruction provided.
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I hope this post clarifies what imitation is and why it is important to teach imitation as well.
Happy Teaching!
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Behavior Bubbles 
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