Monkey Mimics

One of the few social gestures that can capture the attention of children with autism is when a playmate imitates their actions.In fact, when their parents play copycat — by immediately mimicking the kids' gestures or playing with an identical toy, for example — some children with autism suddenly take notice, making eye contact, smiling and speaking more.A new study on monkeys shows that the animals not only pay attention to imitative play, but prefer to interact with people who show it — suggesting that this impulse is deeply ingrained in innate primate social behavior.Read more at...SFARI, August 2009.