The Great Imitators: Children

Have you ever noticed your child picks up your actions, habits, or words? Or copying what they see on the television or in the videos they see? They’re both copying and learning at the same time. Children copying parents or the people around them is children's way of learning through modeling and observing.

Children as young as 8 months can already imitate small and simple actions and expressions. By their 18th month, children can imitate others based on their observations, others’ actions that have more than one step, and simple actions (Parks 2004; 28). In the 36th month, children can further imitate the actions they have observed earlier (30–36 mos.; Parks 2004, 29). From there, children continue to imitate their parents and other people based on their observations and could aid in the development of their behavior in the future.

The imitation can also trace back to Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory specifically on his Bobo Doll experiment that shows that children may learn behaviors through observing adults. Developmental psychologist Moritz Daum pointed out that through imitation, humans and other animals, create a sense of belongingness. It’s almost an instinctive behavior that serves more than just learning, it helps humans identify themselves as part of a group.

Children are more aware than we think they are, parents should be careful in what they project in front of their child. Children are great imitators; they copy what they have observed and they mainly imitate their parents most of the time. However, children cannot distinguish whether what they imitate is good or bad.