This thesis is based on research and observations of children on a preschool when playing in the free-play. What do the children choose to play with, when they get to choose for themselves? And how do they play? Do boys and girls together or do they divide themselves up? How important is the free-playing for the development of the child? Genus is also an important element which is interesting to observe and to see different patterns in. The abidance?s have been made while the children have been playing, and from discrete observations notes have been taken.I have been working with material, and literature from distinguished researchers within the subject.

The object of this master thesis was to examine the significance of fairy tales for children and the extent which children today are able to share fairy tales through the activity of the libraries. The main question was: how current were fairy tales at the investigated libraries activity for children and how current were fairy tales in todays book publication? The qualitative methods used were in the form of interviews, statistics and source studies. The theoretical literature in this thesis described the folkloristic context of the fairy tales. There was also a psychological and a pedagogical view of the possibility of the fairy tales.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and increase the understanding of how the two commercial companies IKEA and SAS and the two aid organizations/nonprofit organizations UNICEF and Save the Children use perceptions of Christmas to produce messages in their Christmas advertising/commercial film. The study also discusses if there may be communicative and pictorial similarities and differences in how these brands constructs messages in commercials, and why it may be that the brands choose to use these messages in commercials based on the recipient possible interpretations. The theories used in this study are promotional culture, framing theory, preferred meaning, semiotics (denotation and connotation), myth and rhetoric (ethos, pathos and logos). The method used to answer the purpose and issues are the qualitative method that uses the theories semiotic and rhetoric to analyze the material. The study's results derived from the qualitative content analyzes of the material (the brands IKEA, SAS, UNICEF and Save the Children Christmas advertising films) show that IKEA message might want to show that they want to help the customer and that they pay attention to the customer needs.

In a society where children are getting a bigger influence over the family?s consumption and where more products for children are purchased, the market for children products has expanded. This growth is due to a higher amount of older parents which have a god economy and are choosing to spend more money on products for their children. Also the fact that parents use fashion products for children as a way to reflect their own status and that children are becoming more fashionable and aware of trends have contributed to the markets expansion. All together this leads to a grown importance of knowledge for marketers concerning the market.

AbstractThe aim is to find out the teachersÂŽ different point of views regarding what and why itÂŽs important to teach children about the human body and in what way educationists can teach this knowledge. Seven teachers are asked, through qualitative interviews, about their point of views on teaching the human body in pre-school.The teachers don`t seem to reflect upon the subject, which shows that a development of knowledge needs within the area.Fist of all the childrenÂŽs spontaneous questions direct what the educationists talk about with the children. The most frequently mentioned questions are about the circulation of the blood and the digestion organs. The teachers think itÂŽs important that the children get knowledge about the human body in order to get a better opinion of their own bodies and themselves. ItÂŽs also important because this is the basis of other kind of knowledge, for instance the knowledge about animals..

The aim of this thesis is to analyze children?s picture books regarding whether and in what form gender stereotypes can be seen in these. The purpose is also to evaluate whether the findings correlate to the different regulatory documents libraries have to abide to.       The study comprises five books, who are part of a selection of books especially chosen by Uppsala City Library to be used by primary school children aged 6-9. The method used is the study of text as well as illustrations, as the theory of this thesis is that the two cannot be separated, but has to be seen a unit. Other theories used in the analysis include Nikolajeva?s schedule of male/female properties and theories on gender.      The result of the study shows that gender stereotypes are in majority regarding the characters in the books, but that the opposite also exists.

The purpose of this essay is to study if and how five South African educators work with music as a special pedagogical tool in children's language development. To achieve the purpose of this study, two research questions were created. As method, interviews of a qualitative character were chosen.  The aim of the method is to give the educators the opportunity to think about and use their own experience before answering the questions.The result shows that the South African educators are not using music as a special educational tool. They rather use music as an everyday educational tool to promote children's language development. The result indicates that music in educational activities promotes children?s communication with each other.

The way towards an equal society, where both women and men has the same possibilities both private and in professional life, has been a long and still ongoing process. During my practical studies to become a recreation instructor I have noticed a difference between the children I have met in my workplace. What I saw was that girls and boys had a different approach towards their future, plus that the pedagogues at the school had different roles depending if they were men or women.In this study I have investigated which dreams and visions a group of after-school children has, plus how these distinguish between the genders. I have through group interviews, first three boys and then three girls, investigated how children look at their future focusing on career, spare time and familysituation. The questions have also focused on how children look at the schools pedagogues with gender as a premiss.My result shows that the children's vision on their future tends to look different between the genders.

This study is about exclusion and childrens role-play in Swedish preschools. 8 preschool teachers, in 4 different preschools, have been interviewed about exclusion and low and high rating roles in children's role-play. The interviews was recorded and then analyzed. Relevant research in this study was from Corsaro, Tellgren and Löfdahl amongst others, and the results of the interviews is what this study is based on. The study showed that one of the most common roles in childrens role-play is the role of mother and that the roles children play are based on social norms and values.

In my essay, I will start with a story that represents my dilemma from my own experience. In the story, dealing with children that challenges teachers and other children in preschool, I wonder how I as a teacher can be fair and inclusive when I feel insufficient on several occasions. I reflect on my own approach because it can be difficult when we encounter children with different needs and abilities in preschool.I write the essay in experience-based essay form. The essays form makes it possible for me to reflect on my own experience and by using selected theoretical perspectives processing my dilemma. In my essay, I explore my own approach, what is meant by fairness and how the concept can be interpreted and how I can in the best way include all children in activities.I conclude that fairness from a perspective can be seen from the five criteria similarity, need, performance, compensation and rights.

The purpose has been to investigate leisure-time centers actual work on children with attention deficit disorder. In addition, the study strives to make leisure-time centers way of working, in relation to their assignments, visible. The study has also compared how the leisure-time centers work and what the research says. The survey was conducted with the help of three exploratory interviews with pedagogues and three-piece observations at the leisure-time centers. It was carried out at three different schools in two counties in Sweden.The results of the survey show that the schools are trying to create clear procedures, though the centers succeed with this in varied degrees.

The main purpose of the study was to analyse the well being of children placed in foster care for at least two years, in one sample municipality. An assessment was made of how the social service admistrated and took responsibility for these children in terms of schooling, physical and mental health. To further understand the situation of the children three areas of investigation were added concerning; teenage pregnancy, the mental health and mortality of the biological parents. To receive answers to those questions a qualitative interview method was used, with structured questions to social workers working with foster care. The author also studied journal notes and child investigations to receive a more comprehensive picture.

Researchers, planners, and government agencies agree that road safety for children must be a priority and in particular that children should have a safe and secure way to travel to and from school regardless of age or the distance travelled. In Sweden, child traffic safety is a key part of the country?s Nollvision, a long-term traffic policy goal of ?no deaths or serious injuries?. Unfortunately, many countries have recorded increases in child traffic accidents as the percentage of parents who drive their children to school and thus congestion around schools has increased. Common strategies include traffic safety education for children, the redesign and improvement of traffic infrastructure, bicycle training, and carpooling.This thesis assesses the traffic problem around Ludvigsberg School in the district Valbo in GĂ€vle, Sweden.

The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the perceptions that ten 12-15 yearold pupils with special educational need, who had been assigned a personal computer, have about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the learning process. Data was collected by personal interviews and observations. Sociocultural perspective and phenomenographic research approach were used as theoretical and methodological frameworks in analyzing and understanding the result. The major conclusions were that most respondents perceived the computer as beneficial assistive technology for learning, but some felt singled out by having a computer to assist in learning. Students had various opportunities to succeed in using their tool depending on e.g.

The capacity to process and to remember information is a basic condition for language ability and for coming reading ability. Reading ability is strongly connected to phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity. In what way hearing impairment in children affects development of cognitive skills and later on reading ability is an area that has attracted minor attention for research.The aim with this study was to investigate changes in cognitive skills and reading ability in children with mild or moderate hearing impairment after one year of progress and furthermore if any connections between any increases of the abilities were to be found. Comparisons were made with results from age adequate normal hearing children. Moreover prosodic ability on word-level was tested this year.