Building Imitation Skills at Home: Simple Play Activities for Children

Imitation is an important early communication skill because children learn by watching and copying the people around them. Before a child can consistently imitate words, they often need opportunities to practice imitating actions, gestures, and vocalizations through play. A helpful way to build verbal imitation is to start with simple, fun actions and gradually move toward more complex communication. Here are some examples of building imitation skills at home with simple play activities based on Laura Mize’s, M.S., CCC-SLP imitation hierarchy.  Laura Mize, founder of “Teach Me to Talk”, is a speech-language pathologist with over three decades of experience. Laura Mize specializes in communication for babies, toddlers, and children who are not speaking. Laura Mize helps translate complex language strategies for parents and therapists. Continue reading to learn more on building imitation skills at home based on Laura Mize’s, M.S., CCC-SLP imitation hierarchy. 

1. Actions With Objects:

   
   

   Start by showing your child how to use a toy, then encourage them to imitate you. Here are some easy examples you can do at home with items you likely have!

• Roll a Ball: Sit across from the child, roll a ball toward them while saying “Ready-Set-Go!” and encourage them to roll the ball back to you.

• Push a Car: Push a toy car across the floor while saying “Vroom, go!” and encourage the child to copy you by pushing their car. Push the car “up,” “down,” “slow,” and “fast” to encourage your child to imitate you.

  
  

  

  
  

• Put a Toy on Your Head: Place a small toy on your head, act silly, and say “Look!” then encourage the child to copy you by putting the toy on their head.

• Feed a Baby Doll: Pretend to feed a baby doll with a spoon while saying “Baby eat!” and encourage the child to copy you by feeding the doll.

  

2. Communicative Gestures:

• Clap hands: Encourage clapping by modeling the gesture during songs and exciting activities, prompting the child to imitate, and providing positive reinforcement when

  they clap.

• High-five: Encourage high-fives by modeling the gesture during playful or celebratory moments, prompting the child to imitate, and positively reinforcing their response.

• Shake head yes/no: Encourage shaking the head “yes/no” by modeling the gesture during simple choices or questions, prompting imitation, and positively reinforcing the child’s response.

• Wave “hello” & “goodbye”: Encourage waving hello and goodbye by modeling the gesture during greetings and departures, prompting the child to imitate, and positively reinforcing their response.

3. Gestures with face and mouth:

• Stick out tongue: Make a silly face and stick out your tongue during play to encourage imitation.

• Blow a Kiss: Pretend to send a kiss to a favorite toy or stuffed animal, model blowing a kiss, and encourage the child to copy the gesture before kissing the toy.

• Raise eyebrows: Hide a toy under a cup, reveal it, and dramatically raise your eyebrows while saying, “Look!”

• Open/close mouth: During pretend play, open and close your mouth like you’re taking a bite of food, then encourage the child to copy the movement while feeding a toy or doll.

4. Vocalizations in Play:

• Animal sounds: Play with farm animals, model each animal sound during play.

  
  

  

  
  

• Fake cough/sneeze: Use stuffed animals and make them cough/sneeze. Pretend to smell flowers and start sneezing. Pretend to eat something spicy and start coughing.

• Snore: Pretend to fall asleep and vocalize loud, exaggerated snores. You can use toy animals, cars, or yourself to model falling asleep and snoring.

• Eating sounds: Play with pretend food and produce vocalizations such as “mmm” and “nomnom”.

• Vehicle noises: Have different toy vehicles (e.g., bus, bike, helicopter, police car, firetruck, boat) and model different vocalizations for each vehicle.

• “SHHH”: Place a toy across the room and pretend to sneak toward it while modeling “shh” with a finger to your lips and quiet body language; use a loud animal or car toy to create playful opportunities for the child to imitate “shh.”

5. Exclamatory Words:

• “Wow”: Hide a favorite toy and dramatically reveal it while saying “Wow!” with an excited facial expression, then encourage the child to imitate “wow” during play.

• “YAY”: Race two cars and celebrate the winner by saying “Yay!” with clapping.

  
  

  

  
  

• “WEEE”: While sliding a toy down a slide or ramp, model an excited “Weee!” as it goes down, then encourage the child to imitate the sound during repeated turns.

• “EWW/YUMMY”: During pretend food play, offer different foods to a doll and model “YUMMY” for favorite foods and “EWW” with a silly face for pretend foods the doll doesn’t like.

6. Words in Verbal Routine: 

• “Ready-Set-Go!”: Before pushing a car, rolling a ball, or launching a toy, pause and say “Ready…set…” while waiting for the child to anticipate or attempt “go!” before starting the action.

• “1-2-...3”: Before rolling a ball or pushing a car, count “1, 2, 3!” and pause to encourage the child to imitate the final number before starting the action.

• Peek-a-boo: Hide your face behind your hands and say “Peek-a-boo!” as you reveal yourself, then pause to encourage the child to imitate the word or phrase.

• Repetitive Nursery Rhyme Songs: Sing a familiar repetitive song and pause before an expected word or phrase to encourage the child to fill in the missing part, such as “Row, row, row your ___.”

7. Functional Words: Early developing verbs, nouns, descriptives, pronouns

• Baby: Hold up a baby doll and say, “Baby!” then pretend to feed or rock the baby.

• Ball: Roll a ball back and forth with the child while repeatedly modeling “ball!” and pause to encourage the child to say “ball” before taking another turn.

• Bye: Wave goodbye to a toy or person while saying “Bye-bye!” and pause to encourage the child to imitate the word and wave.

• More: Give the child a few bubbles, pause when they run out, and model “more!” while waiting for the child to request more before continuing.

8. Short Phrases: Contains words from a child's already established vocabulary

• “My _____”: During play, hold up a favorite toy and model “My car!” or “My ball!” while encouraging the child to imitate the short phrase “My + object.”

• “More _______”: During play or snack time, give the child a small amount and model “More bubbles!” or “More crackers!” while pausing to encourage the child to request “more + object.”

• “I see _______”: While looking at a picture book or playing with toys, point to an object and model “I see a dog!” or “I see a car!” to encourage the child to imitate the phrase.

• “Hi _________”: During pretend play, have a toy or doll arrive, wave, and model “Hi, baby!” or “Hi, puppy!” while encouraging the child to imitate the phrase.

We hope you learned some new ways to build imitation skills through play! If you have any questions, always follow up with your child’s therapist, as they are always happy to help provide any clarity or continuing education.