Hilarious examples can be found all over the Internet and in everyday life of kids mimicking adults. They overhear us at our best and worst moments and turn around and repeat what they’ve heard, often to hysterical effect.
Learning through observation is the very first type of learning we experience as children. It helps babies start to become more self-sufficient. Young kids learn how to solve puzzles or beat the next level in a video game by watching their siblings or friends.
As we grow into our teens and adulthood, a greater percentage of our learning is structured, but that doesn’t stop experiential - or informal - learning from occurring. It’s a learning modality as old as the human race itself. Older, even, as we could surely studylearning behavior of non-human species and the role it’s played in biological evolution.