Object imitation for children with autism

Imitation means copying the action of others. Normally a child learns to imitate in his infancy. Imitation is the first and foremost tool for learning. Kids pay attention to their caregiver and imitate her actions, movements and behavior. Young children imitate adults without being taught to them. It comes natural to them. However, children with autism have great difficulty with imitation. They need to be taught imitation for their learning achievements as well as for developing social abilities. Imitation can be either object imitation or gestures and body movement imitation or sound imitations. Object imitation is the easiest one for the children with autism so it should be taught first. Some of the activities are nesting and towering of blocks, stacking rings, pushing cars, blowing whistle, playing piano etc. A child should be taught in isolation and if the child performs it successfully, then one or more distractor items can be included in the activity. Also, objects used in the imitation activities can be used in more than one way in order to build attention. For example, sometimes you should build a bridge using blocks, instead of using them to build towers.