Imitation in Eight Young Infants with Down's Syndrome

Imitation of tongue protrusion and mouth opening was studied in eight infants with Down's syndrome. Five of the children were observed at approximately 1 mo, seven around 3 mo, and seven at 4 mo. The only significant group result revealed imitation of tongue protrusion at 1 mo. In addition, a descriptive analysis of each child's response pattern during the presentation period showed that all five children observed at 1 mo imitated tongue protrusion and that four of them also seemed to imitate mouth opening. The result for the 3-mo observation was somewhat inconsistent. All but one of the infants increased their response rates of both tongue protrusion and mouth opening when mouth opening was modeled. At 4 mo imitation seems to disappear. Overall, the findings are in agreement with what is known from typically developing children.