The purpose of this study was to explore a child’s play process from start to finish as it led to making choices for further play. The target child was a four-year-old boy in kindergarten. We video recorded and took field notes about him during a session in which he was first playing with a top while chatting with other children and his teacher in the main play room. He then switched to jump-roping, which he seemed to enjoy doing by himself. We analyzed the data qualitatively using the Trajectory Equifinality Model(TEM). This model follows the time series in analysis. The results indicated that the recorded process could be broken down into three parts :1) the boy played with only tops during the “exploring stage” ; 2) the boy played with tops while also showing interest in jump-roping in the “mixed play stage” ; 3）the boy decided to end his play with the tops and switch to jump-roping, in the stage we call the “self-directed stage”. We also analyzed the boy’s influence on his own play process, including third stage, in which he seemed to find amusement in his own play.

本研究は，2014年度後期「幼児教育学総合研究」（授業担当者：中坪史典准教授）にて収集・分析したデータに加筆したものである。また，本研究の成果の一部は，日本乳幼児教育学会第26回大会で発表した。