Aiming to describe and compare the interactional levels in home and day-care centres environments, including different indicators of interaction, this study observed 148 children in free play situations, 58 in day-care centres and 90 in home environment, from low and medium SES. The observations were filmed and segmented in 30 intervals of 10 seconds. All adult-child and child-child interactions were coded. The results found suggest that home and day-care centres are different about the opportunity of interactions; at home, there are more body interactions, but this difference is not found in verbal interactions. The interaction concept seems crucial at this study. The results suggest that studies in the area should discuss the interaction criteria used, aiming a more comprehensive description about the development environment, in which the role of culture may be considered included.
Interaction; Responsiveness; Development environment
