Why is LuCiD's work important?

Learning to use language to communicate is hugely important for society. Failure to develop language and communication skills at the right age is a major predictor of educational and social inequality in later life.  Explanatory models of development are key to tackling the root cause of language and communication difficulties. If we understand how children learn language, we are better placed to influence the language development process.

To tackle this problem, we need to know the answers to a number of questions:

• How do children learn language from what they see and hear?
• What do measures of children's brain activity tell us about what they know?
• How do differences between children and differences in their environments affect how children learn to talk?  

Answering these questions is a major challenge for researchers. LuCiD brings together researchers from a wide range of different research backgrounds to address this challenge.