AbstractMany of the refugees around the world today are children. Some of these children are travelling alone without anyone looking after them. These children flee from their countries to save their lives and as they are children they need special care and protection. This thesis has investigated the protection given to unaccompanied children during the asylum process in the two key instruments in the area: the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Refugee Convention does not contain any procedural rights and does not specifically acknowledge children, even though they are included in the scope of the Convention.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate a parental perspective of children´s participation and quality of live through personal assistance. Important aspects of parents' experiences were highlighted based on how they experienced participation and quality of life for their children. We chose to use a qualitative approach in the form of four individual interviews with parents from different municipalities in central Sweden. The study was conducted with a narrative approach in which we used a holistic perspective. Parents' experiences were highlighted over time to create a complete picture.

At the Women?s House in Örebro, a children?s project has started where the work method ?Oasen? [Oasis] model has been developed by two children?s educationists. The aim of this study is, with the ?Oasen? model as a starting point, to deepen the knowledge of (1) how to meet children?s central needs while staying at a Women?s House and (2) what the ?Oasen? model may contribute to the children. The theoretical framework consists of a cognitive approach to the progress of children experiencing domestic violence and a presentation of conceptions concerning children?s needs.

This Master's thesis examines some aspects of children's books for 9-12 year olds, and the children's books market, from a gender perspective. The main objective is to make a gender analysis of attitudes among children and other agents in the book market towards children's books of different qualities. Children's reflections on gender roles in the books and the importance of gender aspects for publishers in the field, are investigated. A combination of methods are used, including literary analyses, surveys of publication lists of the BTJ group Bibliotekstjänst interviews with children and questionnaires sent to children as well as to Swedish publishers of children's books. The analysis of children's books clearly shows that images of gender roles vary in different kinds of books which supports theories of gendered literature.

This thesis is about how to criticize the large number of non-fiction for children which is published nowadays. I have noticed that both librarians and teachers do not know what perspective to apply with regard to this category of books. There are some good ones, but also a lot of bad ones and some really bad ones. The purpose of this essay is to search by means of criteria from history of art, history of literature ? principally history of children's literature ? and pedagogy, for prevalent attitudes towards non-fiction for children.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a children's book is suggested to be prepared in order to be accepted for publication by a publishing house in Sweden today.My questions was first to clarify the concept of a "children's book". Secondly, to understand if there are any guidelines to follow regarding the design and illustration of a children´s book, and how to proceed with the best chances of getting a mauscript published.To answer the question, I have chosen to use a qualitative method containing questionnaire items involving eleven Swedish publishers of children's literature.My results show that children's books includes all literature that has an target audience of people between 0-18 years of age. The most important thing is that the book's material is appropriate to the target group's level of mental perceptions and emotional competence. The material which then is submitted to the publisher will need to be of the highest quality and the author must investigate a consistent niche in order to submit the material to a publisher..

The purpose with this essay is to find out how active teachers think about integrate children with the diagnosis autism into the regular school. The method I have used to find out is a qualitative interview, where I have interviewed three teachers of various age and sex.A person with the diagnosis autism has problems with communication, social interaction and the ability to form a conception. Today, we do not know what causes autism, but we do know that it has to do with a neurological disorder. The word integrate means unite or join together as a wholeness. Many children who have a handicap may feel good to participate in a school where the other pupils do not have a handicap.

The aim of the study was to examine how background factors, such as abuse earlier in life, affect depression and suicidal behavior, amongst persons who abuse alcohol or illicit drugs. The study was performed at the Social Service Center, Södermalm, department for adults. The data used in the study is based on Addiction Severity Index interviews (ASI) and includes 560 observations. The statistic methods used to analyse the data is chi² test and the result is presented in cross tables and charts. The main findings were that experiences of psychological, physical, or sexual abuse, earlier in life increase the risk for major depression and suicidal behavior later in life.

This report is going to discuss the relatively new and in schools, frequently debated concept of inclusion. The concept inclusion, easily explained means that all children, regardless of special needs or other conditions should be involved in the schools ordinary environment.In the democratic school of today, the education is supposed to be adapted to every individual and its special needs. The dilemma of the special need education is described as giving all children the same, but at the same time adapt to each and everyone?s differences.This study describes the teachers approach to the concept of inclusion and especially the inclusion of children in need of special support. And the teachers experience of possible advantages and disadvantages in their work to include all children.The method?s that were used to collect the empirical information to this report were qualitative interviews.The questions at issue were:How do the teachers include children in need of special support in the education?The teachers experiences of advantages and disadvantages in the way they work whit inclusionPartly for the children in need of special supportPartly for the teachersPartly for the rest of the class.

This thesis is structured as a combined empirical and literary study. The aim is to investigate how children at the age of 11-12 years reflect on their readings of fiction and how these reflections relate to the librarians' perspective of a child's reading ability and reading development. Qualitative interviews with children and librarians constitute the empirical part. Research and theories are compared to the empirical part then placed into a more extensive context. How do children at the age of 11-12 years old reflect upon their reading of fiction and how do librarians relate themselves to this age? An analysis using interviews, research and theories is used to answer these questions.

The purpose with this study has been to get a previous knowledge about how pre-school teachers look at the impact of the picture book for children and their language development and participation at the age of three to five years. The study was carried through inquiries at a pre-school in a west Swedish urban district. The study proceed from the sociocultural theory which means that children learn by teamwork with other more experienced individuals. The result shows that the pre-school teachers consciously let the interest of the children guide the choice of books. At the same time they push for the meaning of conversation with the children.

All human beings need and have the right to a language. How a language is learned and used depends on the individual conditions. This study considers the work to development the language done by pedagogues in a special school for mentally retarded children. How do pedagogues work to develop the language in children who are so different and have so different conditions and needs? That is the central aim of this study.

In my study I have participated at the Fifth Dimension / Active Worlds site in Villa Gymnastiken in Ronneby, where I have worked both as an assistant to the project leader and as a researcher, but also as a participant together with the children. The children are working in a virtual world called Femtedim, created in a internet-based program named Active Worlds Education Universe. The Femtedim-world are bridging together two physical worlds in Ronneby and Copenhagen. My main focus is on an intervention that occurred in the 12th of March when the research-team in Copenhagen, which runs the project in Denmark, decided to create a new challenge for the children since some of them started to get bored. They added gravitation to the Femtedim-world, which lead to a few different reactions among the children. Most of the children didn´t like it and were very hostile towards the idea that they would not be able to fly around freely in the Femtedim-world.

This study aims to find more knowledge about preschool teachers? point of view on the situation of children living in economic hardship and how it affects them at the preschool. With economic hardship becoming more frequent and common amongst families with young children we find the subject important and in need of more attention. Studies have proven the negative effects of poverty on children?s development and health and since the preschool is a big part of children?s everyday life the study aims to see what perspectives practitioners have on the issue and how they plan activities and learning situations based on the needs of these children.

In the curriculum for Swedish pre-school the focus is mainly on five concepts. These are care of the children, learning, influence, rearing and security. These concepts are to characterize the activities of the pre-school in Sweden.Back in time the focal point of pre-school activities for young children was mainly on security. The learning part became more prominent as the children grew older. When speaking to teachers and parents I do sense that some believe this is the case even nowadays.