Little is known about how children gain interpersonal access in settings where adults are not present or are unavailable. This study sought to describe children's strategies for access into and withdrawal from peer interactive episodes in a nursery school. Data were collected from direct observations of two groups of children. One group attended morning sessions, the other afternoon sessions, and each group consisted of about 25 children. The first phase of data collection involved three weeks of unobtrusive monitoring, and was followed by two months of participant observation. Five months of video- taping peer interaction followed. Strategies were defined as being (1) episode access strategy; (2) episode withdrawal strategy; (3) access response; and (4) withdrawal response. Findings indicate that children have more complex strategies for access than for withdrawal routines. It is further concluded that access routines are learned in everyday peer activities, but that withdrawal routines may be dependent on formal training by adults. (AM)