Child H, at the time this account is written, [1] is a girl of 17 years, but the data on record terminate with her tenth year. She was born March 25, 1924, in New York City. Her parents have kept a diary of her development, and an aunt with special educational interests has made various observations and records of her and has also familiarized herself with the parents' records. FAMILY BACKGROUND Her grandparents on both sides were Austrian Hebrews. The maternal grandfather was a rabbi and did some writing. The maternal grandmother is said to have shown some unusual mental alertness, a surprising and almost untutored aptness in numerical calculation. At 65 years of age she learned to play bridge very well, and in her old age continued to show lively interests. _Parents_. H's father is a newspaper reporter. He attended college for three years. He was 29 when H was born. Her mother is a high school graduate and before marriage was a stenographer. She was 28 when H was born. PRESCHOOL HISTORY H is reported as a healthy child, of average stability. She is a first-born child. She began to walk at 14 months and to talk at 16 months, according to the parents. She cut her first tooth at 9.5 months. H did not learn to read until after she was 4 years old. At this age she was fond of play and her playmates were children ranging in age from 3 to 9 years. Her favorite recreations were sedentary--drawing, painting, mosaic blocks, and the like. At 2 years of age she was given a box of wooden beads for stringing. "She very quickly learned the art of holding the string in the right hand and the bead in the left, and became very much absorbed in her work. Suddenly she looked up and said, 'Beads, onions.'" The record continues: "Alternatives seem a preferred mode of expression at present, so that she wants 'soup, _not_ peas'; her hands are 'clean, _not_ dirty.'" At 2 years 10 months, upon seeing a picture of a little girl mailing a letter, she told herself the following story: Once upon a time there was a little girl and she wanted to mail a letter. She went out and looked for a letter box and found one near the drug store. She mailed the letter and it came to Wawarsing and Sheve received it." (Sheve was an aunt living at Wawarsing.) Storytelling and writing plays and verses became a favorite pastime in later childhood. At this time H had imaginary companions. "For several days Mr. Parkey (an invented character) was her very close friend. She played with him, conversed with him, loved him, killed him, and brought him to life again." She also invented new names for her dolls--Flossie became "Woozie" and Alice became "Katch."