First published in 1999, this book brings together the extensive modern evidence for innate imitation in babies. Modern research has shown imitation to be a natural mechanism of learning and communication which deserves to be at centre stage in developmental psychology. Yet the very possibility of imitation in newborn humans has had a controversial history. Defining imitation has proved to be far from straightforward and scientific evidence for its existence in neonates is only now becoming accepted, despite more than a century of enquiry. In this book, some of the world's foremost researchers on imitation and intellectual development review evidence for imitation in newborn babies. They discuss the development of imitation in infancy, in both normal and atypical populations and in comparison with other primate species, stressing the fundamental importance of imitation in human development, as a foundation of communication and a precursor to symbolic processes.

Newborn imitation has recently become the focus of a major controversy in the human sciences. New studies have reexamined the evidence and found it wanting. Imitation has been regarded as a crucial capability of neonates ever since 1977, when two American psychologists first published experiments appearing to demonstrate that babies at birth are able to copy a variety of facial movements. The findings overturned decades of assumptions about the competence of newborns. But what if claims for newborn imitation are not true? Influential theories about the mechanisms underlying imitation, the role of mirror neurons, the nature of the self and of infant mental states, will all have to be modified or abandoned if it turns out that babies cannot imitate at birth. This Element offers a critical assessment of those theories and the stakes involved.

This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of what is now known about psychological development, from birth to biological maturity, and it highlights how cultural, social, cognitive, neural, and molecular processes work together to yield human behavior and changes in human behavior.

This book summarizes more than four decades of research on imitation in infancy and its relation to early learning and sociocognitive development in typically and atypically developing children. The studies were carried out in a Scandinavian context and thus provide important cultural validation of the central developmental processes. The book is divided into three parts: Part one focuses on the social and cognitive aspects of imitation, discussing links to early parent-infant interaction, and developmental meaning. It addresses evidence for an imitative capacity at birth for typical and atypical infants. Also covered are early individual differences in imitation, the role of imitation as a social and cognitive learning mechanism in early development, and possible links between imitation and temperament. Part two presents unique longitudinal studies on early memory development using deferred imitation as the key method. It discusses the biological basis of memory and explores the idea that deferred imitation is an indicator of an infant’s ability to understand intentions. Part three focuses on imitation in young children with autism and with Down syndrome. It examines the role of imitation as a “deficit” as well as a vehicle for change when used interactively in early interventions for children with autism. Imitation from Infancy Through Early Childhood is an essential resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and other professionals in developmental psychology, cognitive development, psycholinguistics, child psychiatry, and developmental neuroscience.

In this book we take a fresh look at imitation. With the knowledge of some 20 years of research after Chomsky's initial critique of the behavioristic approach to language learning, it is time to explore imitation once again. How imitation is viewed in this book has changed greatly since the 1950s and can only be under stood by reading the various contributions. This reading reveals many faces, many forms, many causes, and many functions of imitation-cognitive, social, information processing, learning, and biological. Some views are far removed from the notion that an imitation must occur immediately or that it must be a per fect copy of an adult sentence. But the essence of the concept of imitation is retained: Some of the child's language behavior originates as an imitation of a prior model. The range of phenomena covered is broad and stimulating. Imitation's role is discussed from infancy on through all stages of language learning. Individual differences among children are examined in how much they use imitation, and in what forms and to what purposes they use it. The forms and functions of parent imitation of their child are considered. Second-language learning is studied alongside first-language learning. The juxtaposition of so many views and facets of imitation in this book will help us to study the commonalities as well as differences of various forms and functions of imitative language and will help us to discern the further dimensions along which we must begin to differentiate imitation.

First published in 1999. This volume is the third of a series devoted to the first years of the child’s development, the two others being concerned with the beginnings of intelligence and the child’s construction of reality (La naissance de intelligence chez Venfant and La construction du réel chez Venfant). Although this book contains frequent references to the two other volumes, which deal with the same three children and study the relationships between their mental activities, it nevertheless constitutes in itself an independent and complete study

It was Plato who famously stated that 'imitation is dangerous because it stifles creativity, hampers the development of personal identity and disrupts the perception of other people as unique beings'. There are some who still feel this way, and perhaps this explains why imitation has received less attention within the developmental literature than other human characteristics. So why are humans able to imitate - from the very second they enter the world? Can it have positive effects? Can it help us interact with others better? Can it even make us feel better about ourselves and our ability to influence and interact with the world around us? In this book, a leading development psychologist explores the topic of imitation - looking at why we imitate and the possible benefits it might bring - in particular to those affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders. The book offers fascinating insights into an often neglected topic.