The paper looks at the relevance of W.R. Bion's 'Theory of Thinking' to the interpretation of young child observations. Bion describes a process whereby emotional experience, when contained by a caregiver, gives rise to a capacity for symbol formation, which is at the root of imagination and language. The study consists of eight written hour-long observations of pre-school children which form the data for the study. The data were analysed using template analysis. The results indicate that all children in the study communicated primitive feelings to adults who were contained to a greater or lesser extent. All children demonstrated some capacity for representing their feelings through symbol formation, but this could break down when frustration levels were high. Bion's Theory of Thinking was found to be highly applicable and relevant to the interpretation of the young child observations.