I've worked with children, and I've watched them pick up new, nonsense and specialist words faster than I have, and deduce or divine their meaning and usage with amazing accuracy.

Plural of anecdote is not data, but your comment is in contrast to my personal experience.

May be you are right.I just judged the book from the excerpt. I do not have children so do not really know.

Agreed. My kids (aged 6 and 8) picked up rock climbing jargon from my wife and I (and our friends) rather quickly, and began using it in the proper context. Nothing turns heads like a five year old asking "mommy, did you send that boulder problem?"

I've done a little climbing but can't parse it ... so what did the mother do to the boulder problem?