Acquisition and learning of every mother tongue, including Croatian, implies mastering an abstract system of signs whose goal is communication. (Aladrović Slovaček, 2019). Language acquisition depends on the social environment in which the child grows up and on language exposure. Thus, in addition to parents, extended family, peers and the media, the child is greatly influenced by educators. An early language child spends most of his / her time in kindergartens, so it is extremely important that educators are a good role model and provide a good and stimulating environment for the development of language acquisition. Children are great creators of words and their meanings. If they find themselves in a situation where they need a new word, they will do so without hesitation. The number of words acquired by children grows rapidly, and the basics of the mother tongue are adopted by children from the age of three. Although the morphology of the Croatian language is very complex, they can already put words into sentences. According to Aladrović Slovaček (2019), children facilitate the acquisition of Croatian grammar in various ways and create their own children's grammar. Its features are: simplification, non-implementation of all grammatical rules, generalization of rules and the absence of any basic form. As children grow, they make fewer deviations and eventually acquire the grammar of the Croatian language. The basic aim of this paper was to examine the language competence of children of early language age. The research was conducted in one kindergarten in a mixed nursery group. Thirteen children participated in the study. The research showed that children of early language age know and use age-selected lexemes with different deviations on the phonological, morphological and lexical level, and that they have a richer or weaker vocabulary depending on their age.