Research has been conducted to show that children who imitate language demonstrate an increase in their language development, and that children are more likely to imitate language that is either at their current level or slightly above it (Paul & Norbury, 2012). As easy as the concept of imitation may seem, children may be reluctant or unable to imitate typical adult speech. Parents can engage in imitation with their child another way. Rather then requesting that the child imitates the parent’s utterance, the parent imitates the child. This imitation should occur regardless of whether the child’s utterance is a real word, an approximation of a word, or simply babble. This imitation not only provides the child with an utterance they can easily imitate back to the parent but also encourages early turn-taking skills that are necessary for future communication. In addition to providing a simple model and encouraging turn-taking skills, by imitating the child’s utterances the child becomes aware of what the parent liked about the child’s attempt at communication. Rather than praising the child with “good job!” or “yay!”, imitating their utterance tells the child that they were heard and that the parent liked what the child said. To further engage the child in this communicative exchange the parent should imitate the child’s utterance then engage in expansion (Wright, Roberts, & Kaiser, 2012).