Collocations in early language discourse have distinctive features and differ from collocations used by adult speakers of Croatian language. It was, therefore, the goal of this research to examine the level of collocation acquisition and the semantic and pragmatic interrelations among younger school-age children. This period is characterised by concrete cognitive operations so when implementing collocations exercises, one has to consider both their semantic and their grammatical aspect since collocations are syntactic constructions. Interrelations between semantics, grammar and pragmatics are successfully resolved in concrete communicative situations in which semantics comes before grammar and pragmatics before standardisation (Pavličević-Franić, 2011). The research was conducted in the fourth grade of primary school (N = 100). The examinees were divided into two groups: the experimental and the control one and in each a communicative vocabulary test was conducted at the beginning and at the end of the research. Additional collocations exercises were implemented in the experimental group. Qualitative data analysis was carried out through content analysis and quantitative data analysis via the SPSS. Differences in understanding and using collocations were established between groups. The obtained results confirm the fact that more attention should be paid to lexical and semantic exercises in general in the process of learning and teaching Croatian, especially to collocations exercises due to their crucial role in developing students' lexical competence.