How do children first learn to use grammatical morphemes according to their developmental stage?

Children initially learn to use grammatical morphemes by associating them with specific words within their natural language environment. This means that when children hear and repeat phrases or sentences, they start to recognize patterns and meaning linked to certain grammatical morphemes, such as plurals or past tense. For example, when they hear the word "cats," they connect the suffix "-s" to denote plurality. This association helps them understand how grammatical morphemes function in context.

As children's understanding of language evolves, they may begin to generalize the rules they have learned to new words or situations, but this generalization typically occurs after the initial stage of specific word association. Thus, the focus on specific contexts helps ground their understanding of the morphemes before they apply more abstract rules across different scenarios.

In contrast, although children do imitate adult speech patterns, this imitation alone does not guarantee understanding or correct application of grammatical morphemes without the foundational learning that comes from specific associations. Explicit teaching methods can benefit older children but are not the primary way young children first learn to use these morphemes.