Through practice and repetition, like every other skill. BASIC certainly didn't come "naturally" to you - I doubt you were born with an innate notion of for lo

Through practice and repetition, like every other skill. BASIC certainly didn't come "naturally" to you - I doubt you were born with an innate notion of for loops, variables and methods. Rather, you played with it, put it together, you enjoyed it so you kept at it, and you became better over the months and years. It wouldn't have been any different if the skill had been playing an instrument, drawing, writing short stories, etc. - especially when you're 8. There's nothing special about the skills involved with programming themselves - it's just that they're hard to develop outside of mathematics/programming, and schools aren't that preoccupied with conveying them, so in the end very few people get to develop them from a young age (and those who do tend to all fall in similar buckets: upper middle class with enough money to own a computer, initiated by a programmer parent or relative, etc).