Children's social interaction game with rules

This paper analyzed forms of children's social interaction in competitive and non-competitive situations, by means of the Matix game. The participants of the research were four fourthgrade Junior High students studying in a public school in Vitoria (ES). Firstly, each child played three matches aiming to recognize as well as explore the game. Secondly, the participants worked in pairs and competed among themselves. There was a rotation of students, until everyone had worked and competed with each other. Finally, the participants worked only in pairs in problem solving dynamics. The results indicated the existence of seven categories of interaction in the competitive situation. However, there was a variation of these categories in the non-competitive situation indicating that forms of children's social interaction are related to characteristics of problem solving, cognitive functioning and socio-cognitive dynamics.