ABSTRACT
Imitative behavior in young children attracted the attention of the number of scientists. J. Piaget’s observations on imitative behavior made on babies and children of various age led him to postulate that the ability to imitate develops together with the individual experience acquired by the child with age. On the basis of observations made mostly on his own children, he found that there exist six stages of development of imitative behavior. These stages are: preparation through the reflex, sporadic imitation, the beginning of systematic imitation, imitation of movements not visible on the body of the subject, beginning of imitation of new auditory and visual odels, systematic imitation of new models including the movements invisible to the child and deferred imitation. The results of the deferred imitation test showed that the 9-month-old infants in the imitation group produced significantly more correct imitation responses than the control groups of infants.
