We learn language through imitation, just like Parrots

'We learn language through imitation, just like Parrots'

We all see small cute babies as actually rather stupid, if you really look what's happening behind those restless eyes you'll see that there are some very smart things happening in there. Acquiring a language isn't easy, I'm not talking about when you took a German GCSE in Highschool, I'm talking about when you're only a couple of months old and your parents are constantly staring into your face cooing and speaking with high intonation in their voice. You wonder how on earth you learnt to speak when all your Mum and Dad used to do was sit there arguing over whether you were going to say "Ma ma" or "Da da" first.

It's rather interesting, from a very young age we begin to copy facial movements, strange as it's almost innate that we understand that we can create those expressions ourselves. That's a small stepping stone towards the world of language, although the mimicking does continue like a little parrot that cries every five minutes. Once we've mastered how to use our face we begin to discover that our mouths create noises and that if we move our tongues or close our mouths whilst making those noises they make different noises, it's fun when you think about it. We start trying to copy all the words we keep hearing as all our mind wants to do at that age is to try and communicate, it's an essential piece in the puzzle of our own evolution. If we were to hear "mummy" or "daddy" really often, then it's pretty likely that we'll give it a try, although we can't simply copy as perfect as an adult we don't really know how to pilot this new mouth of ours so we try our best and get a close enough version that creates this "Ma ma" or "Da da" but that doesn't mean the more you say a word to a child the quicker it'll pick it up, actually that's not the case at all. Some children find it more difficult to say certain things than others.

Theorist B.P. Skinner looked at this idea that once the child sees the meaning of something they'll begin to mimic the words we use for it, this then creates a kind of link in your mind that makes the word and the meaning the same thing, although again you struggle to actually say the word so once you've gained this understanding that the blue fluffy thing that gets put on you when you're tired you'll struggle to say the word 'blanket' so you'll probably end up with some jumbled mess that says "ba ba" as that's the closest you can get, with  practice that'll change and eventually you'll be able to say "blaket" as you still haven't mastered how to use the tool that is your mouth completely yet.

We are like parrots in the way we mimic but we do something far more intelligent, a parrot is just mimicking sounds whereas a baby is mimicking sounds and creating mental links that will last forever. Imitation is one of the key features that allows us to grasp our own Language.