ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to two special groups of faculties that develop in the course of the first year and have special psychological interest—imitation and play. The instinctive powers just discussed in their main features develop in much the same way in all normal children; they are, indeed, the common inheritance of the human race. But in addition to these powers, the infant already learns a whole number of others which bear witness to his environment both as regards their nature and form. The empiric learning of certain motor-activities proceeds in a similar manner to that which we shall describe later in the acquirement of psychic experiences. Imitation is a movement the result of which is to copy or to attempt to copy some stimulus that has been observed. The child endeavours at a very early age to repeat constantly some movements that were at first, accidental.
