The present study aimed at the description of the interactional flow among same-aged children during play. A loosely structured free play situation with four 3-year-old children was videorecorded during 30 minutes. A period of 5 minutes was arbitrarily chosen for analysis. Four categories were defined, based on criteria of regulation and orientation of attention by the children. The categories were represented in graphs in order to elaborate sequence diagrams which allowed the description of the interactional flow. The methodological characteristics of this system of categories were analyzed in relation to other studies on social interaction and its potential usefulness and limitations were pointed out.
social interaction; categorization; videorecording
