Getting values from DataDictionary in Google Earth Engine?

I am learning Google Earth Engine with no prior knowledge of javascript (coming from R and python). Following the FeatureCollection tutorial with the following script:

// Load watersheds from a data table.
var sheds = ee.FeatureCollection('USGS/WBD/2017/HUC06')
  // Filter to the continental US.
  .filterBounds(ee.Geometry.Rectangle(-127.18, 19.39, -62.75, 51.29))
  // Convert 'areasqkm' property from string to number.
  .map(function(feature){
    var num = ee.Number.parse(feature.get('areasqkm'));
    return feature.set('areasqkm', num);
  });

// Display the table and print its first element.
Map.addLayer(sheds, {}, 'watersheds');
print(sheds.limit(1));

// Print the number of watersheds.
print('Count:', sheds.size());

// Print stats for an area property.
print('Area stats:', sheds.aggregate_stats('areasqkm'));

The last step creates something that the console calls a DataDictionary. This doesn’t seem to behave like a normal dictionary, & I can’t figure out how to access the individual elements within. I assigned the results with

var areaStats = sheds.aggregate_stats('areasqkm')

And then tried all of the following:

print(areaStats.get('mean'));
print(areaStats.mean);
print(areaStats['mean']);

Which resulted in the error areaStats.get is not a function for the first and simply printing ‘undefined’ for the others. What is going on? I can clearly see a value called ‘mean’ if I print areaStats in the console.

I might not ever need to use this code on my own data, but it bothers me that I can’t figure out something as apparently simple as how to access elements within a dictionary!

var meanArea = 
  // Calculate mean area across polygons
  sheds.reduceColumns(ee.Reducer.mean(), ['areasqkm'])
  .get('mean');
print('Area mean:', meanArea);

def summary_statistics(collection, column):

    stats = collection.aggregate_stats(column).getInfo()
    return eval(str(stats)).get('values')

results = summary_statistics(your_collection, column_name)
print(results.get('sum'))
print(results.get('mean'))