Before Greatness Comes Imitation: How Copy Behaviours Can Enhance an Infant's Motor Skill Development

As we get older, we see ‘copying’ as a way of cutting corners or cheating. Whilst in infancy copying certainly is a ‘cheat code’, it is one that can accelerate progression without risk of a telling-off or detention! Copy behaviours play a crucial role in the first 2 years of life and beyond. They are a valuable tool in maximizing your child's sporting potential.

Infants copy in order to learn bodily movements, acts on objects, and to acquire social strategies. Not only does this reciprocal act of mimicking aid your child’s development, but it also strengthens the bond and level of trust between you and your child. Higher trust levels mean that your child is more likely to follow your example. This becomes especially useful for an infant’s physical development when their parents are physically active. Naturally, your child will want to copy the plank position that they regularly see performed on the living room floor, the clean and jerk they witness in the garage, or the ball striking they admire in the garden.

Copy behaviours become more prominent from around 6 months of age and can take various forms, including mimicking, matching, mirroring, and imitation. The most relevant form for the development of motor skills is imitation, where the child copies the goal and the intentional states and actions of their model.

A great tool for accelerating imitation and thereby motor skill development is your child’s reflection. With the help of a mirror, your child can observe themselves as they perform the movements, linking what they see to the sensory information they receive from their body. We can use learning to clap to see how this works in practice. You would start by guiding your child's hands together in a clapping motion in front of the mirror. As the mirror reflects your child’s actions, their brain will link what they see to the sensory information they receive from their arms, eventually leading to the development of the skill. Clapping is of course a great way to build hand-eye coordination, a critical component of many sports.

One famous example of the power of imitation is the story of Tiger Woods. Earl Woods (Tiger's father) made Tiger watch him hit golf balls into a net in their garage for extended periods of time. These extremely regular opportunities to spectate from his highchair led to Tiger imitating Earl's swings so well that he was soon demonstrating it on national TV. This story highlights the potential influence that modelled behaviour can have on a human brain at its most malleable stage of evolution. Whilst we don’t suggest you spend hours on end performing your specialist sports skill in front of your sedentary child, we do encourage you to give your child the opportunity to witness your physical prowess in real time. These experiences can help wire the brain to accept physical activity and high effort as natural and expected behaviour.

Another way to raise your child’s physical activity levels through harnessing copy behaviours is via imitation songs. These songs are also great for expanding your child's movement vocabulary. However, after your fifth rendition of head, shoulders, knees and toes, fatigue will likely start to kick in. At this point it is probably a good idea to utilise one of the many free resources available online. The benefit of passing the baton to an on-screen role model is that, thanks to the replay button, their energy levels are limitless. We love the enthusiasm of the child entertainers at The Clamber Club who offer a range of songs that will get your child exploring new movements. Their songs are also available on Spotify so you can put your child’s memory to the test as they recall the movements learnt from the YouTube playlist. Those long car journeys will never be the same again!

Imitation songs can even help develop early sports techniques by incorporating sports-based songs into your child's repertoire, such as 'Do You Like Sports?' from FunKidsEnglish. Your child will be imitating a tennis forehand in no time, but don’t blame us when you get the song stuck in your head!

To summarise, copy behaviours play a crucial role in the development of motor skills and can be a valuable tool in preparing your child for early physical activity. Take advantage of mirrors, imitation songs and opportunities to model physical activity yourself. These techniques will lead to your child having a greater motivation to move, thereby enhancing their physical prowess and coordination. Use imitation to give your child a head start on the road to sporting success.