This study examines ways in which children verbalize emotional experiences at successive age levels. Four groups of 16 boys and girls each drawn from the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth grades of a middle class private school in New York City were asked to describe happiness, sadness, love, anger, and fear. Raw protocols were scored according to a Content Analysis system of 100 specific categories pooled into seven major response categories; Physiological, Functioning, Speech and Expressive Behavior, Interpersonal, Attitudinal, Control-Time, and Arousal of Other Emotions. Results indicated that (1) mean total responses generally increased with age; (2) boys differed little from girls in mean total emotional responses, but girls gave more speech and expressive behavior responses; (3) descriptions of Happiness and Sadness were primarily characterized by Functioning responses, Angry and Loving by Interpersonal responses, and Scared by Functioning and Physiological responses. The children's emotional profiles were compared with those of adults. The findings suggested two hypotheses for future research: (1) the interdependency of affective and cognitive development, and (2) the relationship between the broader developmental problems encountered by the child and the nature of his emotional descriptions. (Author/LH)