Speaking the other's language: imitation as a gateway to relationship.

Imitation offers a gateway to relationship. This paper seeks to explore that capacity by describing the therapeutic approach of ‘Intensive Interaction’. The research literature on imitation contains relatively little about imitation used in an intervention capacity, concentrating instead on the emergence of imitative abilities during infant and child development. The paper therefore describes the case of a young man with severe autism, for whom Intensive Interaction was successful in bringing him into interpersonal engagement with others. The author provides an account as to why imitation should be so effective in this regard. Overall, the paper aims to stimulate questions about how imitation can best be conceived and studied. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]