The first phase of an ongoing study of communication in a naturalistic situation in which children talked to familiar children is described in this paper. The situation was one that encouraged pretend (or dramatic) play. Research was focused on (1) the amount of pretend play; (2) the amount of speech used for planning or managing the play; and (3) the amount of speech used for role enactment. Children observed were 20 boys (mean age 47 months) and 26 girls (mean age 48 months) who were enrolled in a preschool program at the University of Connecticut and who came primarily from educated, upper-middle class families. Compatible dyads were formed of same-sex children who were born within 4 months of one another and who were from the same preschool class. Dyads were taken to a play room by a familiar adult. They were told that they had a long time to play and that the teacher would come back to take them to their classroom. Play sessions were videotaped from the next room. Each dyad was analyzed by two coders. Observations revealed that even quite young children had begun to acquire the communicative abilities that allow them to vary their choice of utterances depending on the sex, status, and social intent of the role being protrayed, and do so spontaneously in their dyadic play. (Author/RH)