What to do with it: Facial imitation (wrinkle nose, stick out tongue, smile), action imitation (rub eyes for crying, arms in air for "yipee", wave hand by face for stinky), sound/exclamation imitation (uh-oh, yuck, mmm/yum, peee-ew, yay!)
Why? Motor imitation (such as facial and action imitation), preceeds speech imitation. This is a skill that your child needs to master before imitating speech sounds. In addtion, sound imitation comes before word imitation! ("It Takes Two to Talk", Manolsen)
Practicing these skills while looking at a book gives your child both a pleasurable experience with you and with books, and gives him/her repetition of motor and sound imitation! This also promotes eye contact and joint attention.
Fun developmental fact of the day: Children typically uses their first true word around their first birthday.
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