In this chapter I summarize studies on the relation between early imitation and self-awareness that I conducted in collaboration with Pierre-Marie Baudonnière (Asendorpf & Baudonnière, 1993; Asendorpf, Warkentin & Baudonnière, 1996), and relate them to more recent work. Our studies emerged from French studies of early social cognition and peer communication (Baudonnière, 1988; Nadel, 1986; Nadel-Brulfert & Baudonnière, 1982). We added the hypothesis that the development of self-awareness and certain forms of social imitation may be closely linked because both the ability for self-awareness and the ability for sustained immediate imitation as a form of early nonverbal communication depend on a common cognitive capacity, the capacity for secondary representation. This hypothesis linked the French tradition with theories on the development of children's theory of mind, particularly Perner's (1991) work.

Synchronic imitation and secondary representation

During the second year of life, children become increasingly able to communicate with others through synchronic imitation, which quickly becomes the most important preverbal form of communication among peers (Baudonnière, 1988; Nadel-Brulfert & Baudonnière, 1982). In synchronic imitation, two children simultaneously play with the same type of objects in a similar, though not always identical, way. They regularly look at the partner and seem to realize and enjoy the reciprocity inherent in their joint play, as indicated by a positive mood, and they often begin and end the object use at the same time or shift to a different activity almost synchronically.