The article investigates the construction of spaces of self-referentiality ("doing alone") and hetero-referentiality ("doing with") in a free play task in children aged 2 to 4. The action sequences of 156 children were analyzed by dissociating the temporal organization of the action (goal retention, final marking), the action procedures (mean-goal coordination, stereotypy), the concrete results obtained (animal configurations, alignments, etc.), and the child's interactive demand. Factor analysis revealed different processes of exchange between the categories "interactive demand", "procedures" and "results" from 2 to 4 years of age. A model of action control that regulates three functions (1. realization, linking procedure to result, 2. catching up, giving the child space to realize known things, 3. differentiation between doing alone and doing with) helped to understand these transformations. The spaces of self- and hetero-referentiality are separated at the age of 2, and are connected at the age of 4. During this crucial developmental period, the construction of the difference between self and other presupposes a shift from the use to the elimination of interaction.