The lived experience of a child of two, three, and four years flows back and forth among three realms: (1) a realm of learning to recognize, communicate, and work out ways to deal with the exigencies of daily life, characterized by serious earnest effort; (2) a realm of symbolic play alone or with others, with toys and words, characterized by an affect of playfulness and an exploratory imagination; and (3) a realm of personal registr y of impressions expressed in inner conversation that is often unself-consciously spoken aloud .