ABSTRACT
Language development has been one of the most enthusiastically discussed areas of child development. There have been proposals that it is genetically programmed in ways built up by evolution and wired into the brain, and proposals that it is all down to exposure to others' language. Language can be analysed at many different levels, including the sounds heard and made, the words used, the sentences constructed, the meaning conveyed and the functions served. The language development literature calls this 'statistical learning'. The question of whether there are constraints on children's language development is linked to the question of whether language follows or precedes thought. The chapter discusses the work on 'metacognition', children's awareness of and control of their thinking. Segmentation is an important part of metalanguage. Young children typically learn their native language fast and easily, and make excellent progress even if they learn more than one language simultaneously. Adults typically struggle with learning a new language.
