It is hard to figure out how little kids learn something as complicated as language. Do they copy their parents? Do they start making sounds until the right words come out? Do they find patterns and learn which sounds go together a lot, like b-a-b-y? Do they learn that different words match up with different things and use this to figure out what the words mean? Do they make guesses about what words come next and then learn from their mistakes? Do they just want to have fun with their moms, dads, brothers, and sisters, and this motivates them to learn language? Different scientists think learning happens in different ways. There are so many possibilities. While scientists love to disagree with each other, they generally agree that learning builds on itself over time. The first years of life matter a lot for our ability to learn later on and for our ability to do well in school. What's exciting is that language learning is still a big mystery, and scientists will have plenty of work to do in the coming decades (or even centuries)!

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