When I first ventured to America to pursue my undergraduate studies, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I arrived at the airport, imagined to see big buildings, fancy cars, beautiful large highways, and quite honestly I imagined Hollywood. Little did I know, Indiana was far from Hollywood. I was greeted by a friendly elderly man and was directed to a van. On the way to Bloomington, I saw corn fields, corn fields, more corn fields and finally after 1 hour I saw the Indiana University Bloomington Campus. It was a beautiful campus with a population of 30,000 students.
A 30,000 student population did not intimidate me. In fact, I wanted to attend a large school. The next day, I excitedly woke up, got dressed and made my way to my first class, "creative writing 101." I pushed open the doors and to my surprise, there were more than 150 students in this huge auditorium style classroom. I was mortified. I did not know what to do. So, I scanned the room for a person that seemed to be in a similar situation to mine, I watched his every move and then I did what any other person in a social situation like that would, I did what he did. I made my way to an empty seat, took out a notebook, said "hi" to the person next to me and then waited anxiously for the class to start.
This is called Imitation. I imitated what another person did when I was unsure of what to do in a social context. Most of us do this whether we realize it or not. Imitation is a huge part of our life. When we exercise with Jillian Michaels, we imitate her moves to stay healthy, at our first day at a job, we imitate our co-workers, when we are learning how to use something, we imitate the person teaching us to use object, when we visit a different country, we imitate the cultures and norms of that country, etc.
Imitation can include a simple task such as copying an action, or a more complex skill such as vocal imitation or learning an entire social routine. Imitation is pre-requisite to having an appropriate social interaction. The ability to imitate others is critical in the development of social relationships (Meltzoff and Moore, 1992) This is why the first steps in teaching a child diagnosed with autism social skills is to teach them Imitation skills first. Not only do we teach them how to imitate, we have to teach them generalized imitation skills. This means that imitation should occur across different people, settings, materials and situations without reinforcement that may have followed imitating behavior in the past. An example of this is when a child sees his peer put shoes on a doll may later select similar shoes for a different doll while playing at home. Here, the reinforcement is naturally occurring and adds more value for the child to imitate other behaviors that he/she might see in his/her environment.
There are several way to teach imitation skills:
(a) video models
(b) live models (Peer or adult)
When teaching imitation, a teacher can go in order of the following : gross motor imitation, object imitation, verbal imitation of sounds, words and sentences, fine motor imitation, imitation of kids songs, video imitation (objects, toys and social interaction).
If you are a parent, and have successfully built some rapport with your child, you can start teaching your child imitation skills.
1) Choose a time of day when you and your child can sit together to play
2) Choose a reinforcer ( a snack or toy that your child prefers)
3) Make sure your child is sitting across from you and is facing you.
4) Provide the model ( First start with basic models such as clapping or hands up)
5) Provide the preferred toy and snack paired with lots of tickles and social praise
A few things to consider:
If you know your child does not have this skill, anticipate that an error will be made and after you provide the model, come in with your hands and help him clap. This is called a prompt. After you provide a prompt, provide your child with the preferred toy or snack. This is important to remember, if you use a prompt, remember to fade the prompt as quickly as possible. This means that if you have provided your child with a hand over hand prompt initially, it is important for you to fade your prompts to the wrist now. The fading steps could be as follows : Hand over hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, bicep, shoulder and then shadow. If you observe tyour child acquiring the skill faster and not needing prompts, feel free to start fading the prompts quicker. This is just a suggested sequence. In addition, if you are fading your prompts and your child makes an error, always go back to the previous prompting level where your child was last successful. Don't forget to provide reinforcement in order for your child to stay motivated and on task.
Please remember like any other skill, everything takes time and you want to make learning a fun experience. Start small and build up to big.
Once your child has learned to imitate basic motor imitations, you can feel free to introduce more complex set of models for your child to imitate and transition into video models as well.
Here's a great video of Imitation and how to teach it. Please watch it as you will be see prompting strategies. As usual, if you have any questions or are interested to know more about Imitation, please email us at littlestepsmalaysia@gmail.com
Imitation Video
Little Steps |
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