There is a lot of evidence that children are “conservative” in that they do not generalize the language they hear to the same extent as adults.  And yet there’s also work that reports that children generalize (“regularize”) even more than adults. This presentation will address this apparent paradox and argue that both effects stem from the same process: failure to access the best (combination of) constructions and instead producing a “good-enough” option.  The challenge children face stems from their need to gain fluency with a rich network of constructions that are conditioned by a wide array of conceptual, contextual, and social factors.