Monday, January 29, 2007

The Scientist In The Crib

"Young babies imitate adults, a trait that leads them to behaviors not genetically determined. Through imitation, children learn how to behave in their social world. Babies also imitate other children; in fact, older siblings are sometimes more important than parents in this regard. Imitation is an innate mechanism for learning from adults, a method of learning not available to most other animals."

I fully agree on the bold sentence. Early in the day, the older girl had to fool around on the sofa. She was lying on her back; when she lifted up her legs to her head (like a contortionist). The little one kept looking at her che-che and started smiling. Soon...as I observed.. she also lifted up her legs but of course she couldn't do as well as her che-che.

Me : Athena, you see.. mei-mei is imitating you.
AT : No what.. she cannot bring up her legs. Where got?
Me : That's because mei-mei is small and fragile. She will break her back and legs if she does that.
AT : No what... you see you see! I can do it never break my legs what (did the same action as she spoke to me)

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