Beginning to talk, acquiring language, is one of the most ordinary and remarkable things

human beings do.

By the age of three or four, children typically have vocabularies in the thousands of words

and a grasp of complex grammar.

In fact, as my guest, Jean-Berco Gleason, was one of the first to confirm, young children

know grammatical forms that no one ever tries to teach them, and they say things they've

never heard anyone say before.

She is a pioneer in psycho-linguistics, in understanding how language emerges from childhood

on, and what it says about how we think and who we are.

And she's maintained an exuberant and playful spirit to match her youngest research subjects.

This hour, she shares what we keep learning about the human gift as she puts it to be

conscious of ourselves and to comment on that.

Jean-Berco Gleason sees this as a frontier, every bit as important and thrilling as exploring

outer space or the deep sea.

We are innately predisposed to pay attention to little children and to talk to them.

Let's not just assume that we are scientists sitting around watching babies unfold.

We're unfolding with them.

I'm Christa Tippett and this is on being.

Jean-Berco Gleason is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Boston University.

I interviewed her in 2011.

She made her mark on linguistics in 1958 when she published The Wug Test.

This was and still is performed on children using a simply drawn mythical creature of her

...