Copy Cat Games

10/23/2015

You must never be fearful of what you are doing when it is right.
Rosa Parks

"It all starts with imitation," contends a Wall Street Journal article, "For Babies, Copy-Cat Games Provide a Social Compass." In the early 1980s, Andrew Meltzoff, now co-director of the Institute of Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, found that human babies have an inborn talent for mimicry. Infants just a few days old imitated adults' facial expressions—and even their finger movements—with surprising accuracy. When Dr. Meltzoff stuck out his tongue or pursed his lips, the newborns did, too.

"....Dr. Meltzoff...discovered that when a 14-month-old baby's hand was touched, the same region of her brain lighted up as when she saw an adult use his hand to touch something. When the baby watched an adult nudge an object with his foot, there was electrical activity in the region of the brain corresponding to the baby's perception of her own foot being touched.

"'I think babies are born socially connected,' Dr. Meltzoff said. 'They see you moving your hand in the hospital room, and they think 'I have one of those, and I can move it too!' It's an aha! moment. The baby is realizing that he felt that movement in the womb, and this is what it looks like. This starts at birth and flowers as mothers play mutual imitation games with the baby. Parents unconsciously imitate and reflect the babies' behavior back to them because the babies enjoy it so much. And now we know why.'"

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