This chapter is about how the study of imitation in infancy can contribute to our understanding of the origins of body knowledge. If we define imitation as the voluntary reproduction of the movements of another, then imitation clearly requires a good deal of such knowledge. The accomplished imitator must know their own body parts – their locations, their interrelations, the possible movements of each, and how to create those movements (singly and in combination) so as to achieve different actions. They must also be able to recognize and represent all of these same aspects of the body and actions of the person to be imitated, and to reliably map their knowledge of their own body onto those representations.

The study of the origins of imitation, then, could also be one way to study the origins of body knowledge. We say “could” because at this time the literature on imitation in infancy has surprisingly little to say about when and how infants develop the requisite knowledge, motor abilities, and motivation to voluntarily reproduce the behaviors of others. However, we believe that new research focused on the mechanisms that account for the emergence and development of imitation will lead to new discoveries and new theoretical directions. In this chapter, we will present data from one study that we believe illustrates this potential – a case study of the development of behavioral matching in one infant across a 12-month period. Data from this study are especially interesting for what they suggest about how infants acquire the body knowledge and body mappings on which the ability to imitate depends.