When did your baby start to copy you?

[YellowEllis]

Does anyone remember what age their babies started to

Copy sounds/noises

Copy actions (so big/clapping/waving etc)

Copy faces (not smiles but tongue out etc)

Details please

Oooh I'm wondering too now

Hopefully we'll get some answers! Haha

I can't remember but I do remember from NCT that sticking there tounge out as a response to you sticking your tounge out is inbuilt from newborn, there designed to recognise and respond to human faces. So I tried it out and it happened pretty early days.

I teach this in developmental psychology.

The text books used to say that babies can copy some actions (e.g. sticking out your tongue) from within a day or two of being born. But now we think that is not true.

Copying hand actions like clapping / waving normally develops around 12 months, but can be very variable. And babies continue to get better at copying and at deciding when to copy over several years.
measurements.

-measurements- was a typo

and I'm happy to give links to the scientific papers if you want them ...

DS had a tongue tie cut at a week old, we were told to do the sticking out our tongue thing to help him with movement and healing and he did copy us so this would have been 1/2 weeks old.

I really can't remember and it wasn't even that long ago! I remember she was copying us clapping by nine months and mirroring smiles a lot earlier than that.

Yes looking back at some videos I'd say around nine months for bigger meaningful gestures.

Oh and we did baby sign language and she had a few signs before then, so I guess that's similar? She learned the milk sign at around five months.

Interesting thank you. My 11 month old has been referred for early intervention as he's not copying me yet, apart from smiles. Doing some research today is making me feel a bit confused as it doesn't seem that unusual. Wanted to get some opinions here. Yes to the papers please @parietal

Waving - 4 months. Although I think that this is due to it being th only really way extended family can interact with her on zoom etc, so as a kickdown baby she gets a lot of waves.

Tongue out - 2 months.

Ds1 copied clapping and waving from about 8 months. Ds2 started at 5 months (I think the benefit of having a big brother endlessly playing clap and wave with him all day every day!).

No idea as DD never did copy us (and still doesn't at 4 years).

DS copied a wave at about 10 months and sticking out tongue at about 11 months. He's nearly 1 now and still not clapping and still not copying sounds although he does babble. So a little on the late side maybe!

I remember being really worried that DS wasn't copying enough but I can't remember when he started doing it - I definitely think he walked before he clapped, though. I don't think he ever copied sounds in the way most babies do but his speech is now average or a little ahead for his age. Looking back I actually think it was personality - this will sound weird but he was a lot less keen to please than most babies? He's nearly two now and as far as I can tell entirely developmentally normal and very loving but still really resistant to 'performing on demand' - I notice it's a lot easier to get a lot of my friends' toddlers of the same age to do things with praise, whereas DS has to decide he wants to do it himself!

My ds started waving goodbye around 8 months, but my dad repeatedly making a huge point about him doing it every day.

He copies sounds, like letters and noises, if I hum a song he will start making a humming noise too.

He wont clap on his own though, if I say clap hands he know what i want him to do but grabs my hands to hold his hands to help him clap.

My dnephew is 8 months and is clapping on his own.

Sorry should have said my ds is almost 1

Very odd that they've referred him for early intervention just because he's not copying you! That's incredibly early. DS is 13 months and only started clapping about a month ago. Doesn't wave or point yet, doesn't pass toys to me etc. I mentioned it to HV at his 12 month checkup and she pretty much giggled and said at 12m it's absolutely nothing to worry about, but if I'm still concerned that there's no progress by 18m then I can contact them and go from there. But honestly I really really wouldn't be worried at 11m! I spoke to the NCT girls about it after the checkup and out of 9 babies, the range of what they did / didn't do varied MASSIVELY, but the majority were either clapping OR waving or doing neither, I don't think any babies were doing everything so it seemed pretty average.

Does your baby make eye contact with you? And does he know his name? What about if you say no - does he seem to know what you mean (even if he carries on?) - these are all questions the HV asked me and I answered yes to them all so she was happy that he did have social skills he just didn't fancy copying me!!

@LisaSimpsonsbff this is exactly what my mum says about DS! She said he's not a performing monkey and isn't interested in doing something just because I'm trying to make him. I agree it could be a personality thing. DS is, and has always been, very independent. He plays happily by himself and doesn't require much intervention from me. I think he's just pretty chilled and likes doing his own thing.

That does sound just like DS - at one he would play independently for a lot longer than other babies I knew (it's less true now, mostly because he wants to play more elaborate games that involve me building or doing something and also because he wants to be read to constantly). I'm not sure he ever clapped in direct response to us clapping, he's only ever clapped himself (the little narcissist ) but I guess that is still copying because he learned from us doing it?

About 4 days old for tongue out (we were trying to improve latch and that’s when I discovered his tongue tie).

He’s 6 months old now and started copying chewing motions when we started weaning recently but doesn’t really copy actions yet - he is, however, trying to copy sounds.

This has made me feel a lot better! My 11m knows her name, and does make eye contact. She smiles when I say no and sometimes copies when I shake my head. But she doesn’t mirror noises or other gestures. Thanks OP for posting the thread :)

God, DD applauds herself numerous times a day. Every time she does anything she gives herself a little round of applause!

OP, have you seen the ASQ questionnaires that HVs use? I find them useful as as a rough guide. Remember that they span a couple of months, so a baby won't be expected to be in the 'on target' points range until the end of the age range.

steeplechasepedi.com/patient-corner/forms/ages-stages-questionnaires/

Here is one academic paper on the timelines of imitation development. pages.ucsd.edu/~johnson/COGS260/Jones2009.pdf

It may not be very easy to read if you haven't studied the area, but here are a couple of key paragraphs:

---

Abravanel et al. (1976) tested infants up to 15 months of age for their ability to imitate 22 simple acts. Production of modelled acts by 15-month-old infants exceeded spontaneous production of the same acts for only eight of the 22 actions. Thus, imitation was detectable, but not typical, at 15 months.

Masur (1998) and Masur & Rodemaker (1999) studied imitation at 10, 13, 17 and 21 months. The infants’ produced less than one instance of apparent imitation on average during sessions at 10 and 13 months, but produced four or five instances on average at 17 and 21 months.

Despite giving infants
ample opportunity, and in some cases active encouragement, to show their imitative abilities, these studies
have consistently found little imitation before the
second or third quarter of the second year [i.e. 15-18 months]

----
Overall, the academic studies suggest that typical infants don't often copy action at 12 months, and many don't copy until later.

So you really shouldn't worry - the health visitor is wrong.

Yes!!!!! @LisaSimpsonsbff same as DS! He claps when he wants to clap, eg when he's excited or finds something funny. He doesn't ever clap when I clap, even if I clap directly in his face he either ignores me or looks at me as if you say "f off mum" and carries on slapping his toys around.