Educational psychologists were researching peer interaction dynamics in reception-class children. They conducted naturalistic observations of 24 children aged four to five years during a scheduled indoor group-play session. They recorded social behaviors during a 15-minute playtime.
Each child was observed at 30-second intervals. The observers recorded four mutually exclusive interaction categories: Solitary Play, Observing (watching peer play without joining), Cooperating (active shared play), and Lead Role (initiating or directing play). Inter-observer reliability was checked and a correlation of +0.92 was established.
The observations from the 15-minute session were analyzed in three consecutive five-minute intervals: the first five minutes, the middle five minutes, and the final five minutes.
| 5-minute periods | Solitary Play | Observing | Cooperating | Lead Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–5 mins | 120 | 95 | 45 | 40 |
| 6–10 mins | 70 | 60 | 110 | 60 |
| 11–15 mins | 30 | 35 | 165 | 70 |
What could you conclude about the children's peer interaction levels over the course of the play session? Justify your answer with reference to the data in Table 2.
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