The perceptions of a group of 5-6-year olds were tested against two disparate hypotheses, one for nested hierarchies, the other for symbolic representations in language and learning. There is evidence that young children have the foundation for tackling more sophisticated and challenging ideas than is usually recognised. Linguistically, children may be capable of operating at a quite sophisticated "symbolic" level though day-to-day teaching seems to rely on more explicitly concrete experiences. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)