The present study states as its purpose the delineation of everyday transactions with the environment of a group of children observed longitudinally in their own homes and neighborhoods from age one to three. This research is considered to have been designed to answer: (1) what types of experiences are intellectually valuable to the young child; (2) whether and when it is important that he construct such experiences for himself as opposed to receiving them from his environment; and, (3) whether and when it is important that he encounter such experiences in context in which he relates to the human in contrast to the non-human environment. Topics addressed are: sources and situations associated with intellectual experiences, the interactor as a source of the child's intellectual experiences, television as a source of the child's intellectual experiences, intellectual competence (tested and spontaneous), the interactor as participator in the child's intellectual experiences, and the process of interaction. It is concluded from the supporting data that the class of intellectually valuable experiences that are observed in this study are more deeply implicated in the child's development of intelligence insofar as this is measured by IQ than other types of everyday experiences, and that it is the incidence and sources of the former type of experience that must be examined in detail if one is to understand how everyday experience becomes the basis for his development of intellectual competence. (Author/AM)