The effects of age and intelligence levels upon word associations were studied in 96 intellectually retarded, normal, and superior children with IQ's of 65 to 80, 91 to 110, and 117 to 158 respectively. A word association and a word usage task (reliability coefficients of .91 and .98) called for homogeneous responses to six form classes--count nouns, mass nouns, adjectives, intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, and adverbs. Results generally supported the conclusions that homogeneous responding increased in a linear fashion across age with the more frequently occurring form classes leveling off in some instances, and followed a regular sequence of development regardless of intelligence group. Performance level differed for retardates when they were compared with the superior group and, in some instances, with the normal group while performance level does not differ when normal and superior groups are compared. The rate of homogeneous responding appears to be similar for all intelligence groups on the more commonly used form classes while the groups respond differentially in some instances on the more complex form classes. (Author/JD)