This study focused on elementary children's shift from syntagmatic to paradigmatic word association and their consistency in responding again with the same word. Subjects, 128 children ranging from first through sixth grade in the Model Laboratory School (Richmond, Kentucky), were presented with 20 structural words and 20 lexical words. The subjects were instructed to respond with a free word association. First graders were found to be significantly different from other grades in both paradigmatic responding and consistency of response. No significant differences were found between second through sixth graders on either task. These findings point to educational experience as a primary cause for this change in verbal responding. References compiled by James Dinnan on paradigmatic/syntagmatic behavior and the reading process are included. (MB)