Frequently Asked Questions

Your child may get frustrated or move away from you when you imitate them, especially at first. Remember, this is a new experience for your child and they may need some time to adjust. Don’t give up! You can start by imitating them for 30 seconds at a time, and then add more time as they become more comfortable. You can also try sitting next to them in front of a mirror as you imitate them. Many children find this easier than face to face imitation at the beginning. Finally, remember to set up physical and visual boundaries to help structure the environment for success.

There are many strategies that you can use to get your child’s attention before modeling an action for imitation:

• Animation. Exaggerate your actions, facial expression and vocal quality to help elicit your child’s attention. Try using a loud gasp and waiting a moment for your child to look at you before you model an action. If your child is easily overstimulated, you can still be animated, but use a whisper and rely on your exaggerated facial expressions and actions to draw his attention to you.
• Playful obstruction. You can playfully block your child’s play with your hands in order to get their attention. If you do this, be sure to give your a child a warning beforehand by saying “1, 2, 3…stop” or “ready, set…stop.” Wait for them to look at you, and then model your action for imitation. As soon as you’ve modeled the action, remove your hands, and let them have access to their materials. Some kids love it when you use a puppet or a small blanket to stop their play, instead of your hands, so feel free to be creative! Playful obstruction may frustrate some children, but if you are able to keep it playful and silly, it can be a great way to get your child to look at you.
• Trade toys. Try trading toys with your child to help them look at you. Be sure to give your child a warning beforehand by saying “my turn…” or “let’s trade…” Wait for them to look at you, and then model your action for imitation. Let your child take back their original toy if they wants to.

Helpful Hint: While it is natural to call your child’s name to get their attention, try using some of these other strategies. By doing this, you will help them learn to respond to a variety of different social “bids” for attention and increase their social flexibility.

Your child may get frustrated or move away from you when you physically help them complete an action, especially when you first start using this technique. You are using Mirror Me Online because your child struggles with social imitation and social turn taking, so it will take time for them to get used to being required to provide a response during social interactions. Don’t give up!

• You don’t need to help your child complete the action perfectly, so try giving quick physical help—even if it doesn’t result in an exact imitation of your action.
• Be sure to keep a warm tone and praise your child as soon as they have attempted the action (even when it is with your help).
• This will keep the interaction fun and will motivate them to stay with you the next time you decide to model an action for imitation.

Yes! These techniques are wonderful for teaching gestures. Children usually learn to imitate with objects before they learn to imitate gestures, which is why Mirror Me focuses on object imitation. But, you can absolutely use the same techniques to focus on teaching different kinds of gestures such as conventional gestures, affective gestures,  descriptive gestures, and pantomime.

Handout: Teaching Gestures

By adding a little bit of extra time to your daily routines, you can create a number of learning opportunities for your child without having to completely change your daily schedule. Teaching within daily routines and activities is also helpful because it allows your child to learn new skills throughout the day within activities that are meaningful to them.

There are a number of different daily routines that you probably already do with your child that might be a good fit for using what you learn during Mirror Me Online. Here are some examples of how to use the strategies during different daily routines.

• Story: When reading or looking at a book with your child, take turns imitating your child and encouraging your child to imitate you acting out or interacting with the characters on the page. For example, if there is a picture of a bird, model pretending to be a bird (flap your arms like wings, “Chirp, chirp”). If there is a picture of food, pretend to eat it off the page (“Yum, yum!).
• Meal Time: Try imitating your child during snack. Place the food in your mouth at the same rate as your child. Provide a description of how the food tastes. Encourage them to imitate you pretending to feed a toy puppet or person. If your child enjoys cooking, have them become part of the process. For example, have your child imitate you pour the ingredients in, mix the ingredients, or measure the ingredients.
• Bath Time: If your child enjoys baths, imitate their actions in the bathtub. If your child splashes the water, splash the water with them. Imitate your child’s play with water toys, such as water wheels, cups or other containers, strainers, rubber toys that float, wind up tub toys, bath crayons, scrubbers, or bubble bath. Then encourage your child to imitate you as you show them a different way to play with the toys. For example, if your child likes to pour water, model how to pour water over a toy person and say “it’s a shower!”
• Gross Motor Play: Imitate your child’s vocalizations, gestures, and body movements as he moves through your home or yard. Exaggerate the fact that you are imitating him. Then encourage your child to imitate you as you spin around, fall down, jump, or dance.

The [USING RIT DURING DAILY ROUTINES HANDOUT] can help you identify the best care‐giving routines to teach within. On the handout, write down the daily routines that you use with your child. Include when they typically occur and how long they typically last. Then write a brief description of what the routine looks like. For example, “At wake up, I go into my child’s room and turn on the lights. I get in bed with my child and rub their back until they wakes up. Then, I get them up and bring them to the living room.” You will notice just how much time you already devote to interacting with your child during the day. Then, think about ways in which you can use the strategies from Mirror Me Online during the routines that your child enjoys.

To build social imitation and social engagement, you will go back and forth between imitating your child, and helping your child to imitate you. It can be challenging to use all of the techniques together during interactions with you child. It can also be hard to find a good balance between imitating your child’s behavior and providing opportunities for your child to imitate you. One of the best things you can do is practice, practice, practice! Try using the RIT techniques across different activities and during different times of day to find you and your child’s comfort zone.

Remember, after you structure your environment, there are five main steps: 1) Imitate your child, (2) Describe play, (3) Model an action or gesture, (4) Ensure your child imitates the action, and (5) Praise your child for imitating. This same procedure can be applied for teaching actions with objects, gestures, or activities during daily routines. See [RIT DIAGRAM OF STEPS HANDOUT].

Many young children are not yet interested in playing with toys. You can brainstorm some activities that you child does enjoy, and then think about ways to use strategies within those activities.  Some children enjoy the use of these strategies during gross motor play (e.g., jumping on the trampoline), during routine activities (e.g., during snack or during dressing), and during arts and crafts activities (e.g., finger painting, stickers and stamps). Your child might also enjoy interacting with materials that you already have in your home in unexpected or different ways, such as tearing paper, running hands through dried rice or pasta, banging plastic cups together, pouring dried oatmeal in and out of containers, and bending straws. See [ACTIVITY IDEAS HANDOUT].

There are a growing number of research studies that have evaluated the use of RIT to build early-emerging social skills in children with developmental delays. Check out the resources tab to access these articles.