role taking, imitation, child development

[Adam Blatner]

The following is a video of a 3-4 year old boy who's obviously watched some music videos of country western songs, and picked up to a startling degree the moves, facial expressions, gestures of the major performer, playing his little toy guitar. He's mouthing the words that are sung professionally in the background--- I can't hear if he's actually singing anything. Lip-sync-ing pretty well. 
    What impresses me is the power of children's observation, how easily their "mirror neuron" system picks up subtleties. (The video was sent to my by our colleague Ed Hug, who has written about the neuroscience of behavior in some of our field's publications.) This deals also with the subtle mutliple dynamics of identification and may reflect many more levels of subtle mood and body-movement cueing than our mainstream culture believes is possible.
     It's a lesson in how much kids pick up even if grown-ups don't want to believe it's possible. What other comments about this level of identification does anyone want to add? 

    The video lasts about 5 minutes and there's no expectation that you watch it, but if you want, here's the URL:
...
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1610699488?bctid=31812464001

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