The author reports experimental observations of nineteen normal preschool children in their spontaneous expression of fantasy in play, compared with the productions of schizophrenic children, two girls of eight, and one girl of thirteen. This comparison is meant to answer the question whether schizophrenic thinking represents a reversal to earlier levels of development in child thinking. The author's answer to this question is negative. Normal children usually react to questions regarding their fantasies with denials of their reality character, calling them pretense or make-believe. In a smaller proportion they answer with evasion; still less frequently with reiteration and apparent belief in the reality character of their productions. In the last group, the fantasies