In the course of their first three years of life, children learn several thousand words, figure out how to build and understand complex sentences, and successfully master the characteristic sound system of their language. And all this they achieve long before they are able to tie their own shoelaces. How do children learn language? And how is it that they manage to do it with such evident efficiency and so quickly, surpassing even the most capable adult? In this gripping book, written in an easily understandable way, William OGrady provides an easy-to-read review not only of the process of language acquisition itself, but also of the various techniques and particularly ingenious experiments , which researchers use to analyze this mysterious phenomenon. This is an ideal book for anyone who is curious about the way language works and how it is learned.