By the age of 2-3 years most children are capable of asking for an ice-cream or saying they do not want to go to bed or expressing a preference for a doll or a toy train, yet understanding that 2+4=6 is still a long way off. Why this predisposition for language and not for numbers? Two million years ago the production of stone utensils was very primitive, but over the next 1.5 million years it improved considerably. Over this period instruments passed from sharpened stone flakes to tools such as axes with handles and pointed arrows that could be used to go hunting, cut plants and defend oneself. This technological leap meant that people had a lot more food to eat and that there was a spurt in physical and brain growth. Recent studies on the human brain using sophisticated instruments have shown that key areas of the human brain that are not employed when preparing stone flakes become very active when one is busy making more sophisticated and complex objects. Surprisingly, these brain areas are the same ones that are activated in the ‘production’ of language. This suggests that making complex instruments requires mental processes that are similar to those required to formulate concepts that are then verbalized. In the economy of things the area used to produce things is the same one used to produce thoughts and speak. These studies are useful in that they suggest ways of treating language deficiencies. In fact studies are underway to determine if planning and building ever more complex physical structures is helpful in the treatment of speaking disorders.