When you use the * (shift/8 on the keyboard) you are asking the database to return all the words that begin with the same letters.
Child* will find all results with child and all the words that start with these letters like children, children's, childhood, childrearing.
Quotation marks create a phrase to tell the database that you want to search the words in the order you entered them.
“lady gaga” will find only those words in that order and will NOT include "crowd goes gaga over lady in pink."