The research in this thesis attempts to understand what happens when children (3-6 years of age) interact with each other in the context of free play in two pre-school settings when adults are not involved. The aim of the study was to get a closer look at how children create relationships and how they protect and defend their interactional spaces. Data was gathered through ethnographically inspired methodology, using video observation to capture the everyday interactions of the children. Results were analyzed using a phenomenological approach to peer cultures. Previous research suggests that it is very important for children to maintain their interactions with peers and gaining access to play.

Introduction: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a widely used test for measuring aspects of social cognition. The aim of the present study was to provide results from a group of typically developing Swedish children (age 9-12) and to compare these results with children and adults in other Swedish and English studies, as well as results from a group of children with Asperger syndrome. Method: A Swedish version of the child version of the test was completed by 83 controls and by six children with Asperger syndrome. Results were compared between the two groups and with data from other studies. Results: The children in the current study did not differ on scores compared to children in the same age group in other studies.

The aim of the study is to show how children and adults are described in three picture books, examining how children and adults are portrayed in text-and-picture narrative and how this has changed over time. We have analysed how the characters in the books are presented and how the representation of children and adults has changed in our own times.The material for the study consists of three picture books from different periods, with the focus on how children and adults are described as the common point of departure. The analysed picture books are: Tomtebobarnen (Beskow 1919), Aja baja, Alfons Åberg! (Bergström 1972) and Snäll (Dahle 2008).We have arrived at the conclusion that a text-and-picture narrative is in very large measure a reflection of the outlook on children, childhood and child rearing at the time when the book was published. The result shows that the greatest change that has happened is that parents? and adults? dominance in the books has declined over the years, and that children have been given a more prominent role.

The purpose of this work is to investigate how 4-5 year olds perceptions of materials and material properties can be developed through an educational activity. The study is based on two interviews with eight children in that age category. The interviews were conducted before and after an activity where the children were first introduced to the subject by the tale of The three little pigs (Harris, 2009) and then given the opportunity to explore various materials related to the book. The kids got to experiment and explore how water affected materials and to compare different materials properties. The children were also attracted to build and create the material that was offered during the activity.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate children?s librarian?s perspectives on children?s literature and reading of fiction books. This is a comparative study of Swedish and Lithuanian librarians. The main questions to be answered are how children?s librararians at public libraries motivate their selection and purchase of fiction for children and what kind of considerations there are behind the purchases.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of learning on open-field activity among pre-school children varying from 3 to 5 years old. Altogether 25 children, 13 girls and 12 boys, entered the test from three different preschools in Dalarna. Six of these children represented the control group. The children were asked to learn 2 tasks, 1 visual memory task and 1 spatial constructing-kit task. Before, between and after the tasks, the children were allowed to move freely in the open field.

According to reports from the department of education the majority of school children consider school as a place for happiness, security and development. However, one of ten children experience cruelty and abuse on a daily basis and research shows that children are more often violated by their teachers rather than their peers. In year 2006 legislature decided that school children needed to be protected from the harmful abuse and bullying from other children as well as their teachers. Despite the law approximately 50 000 children are the victims of adult abuse in school every year. Meanwhile science also proves that teachers dare not, for different reasons, confront colleagues when witnessing violations of children.

According to reports from the department of education the majority of school children consider school as a place for happiness, security and development. However, one of ten children experience cruelty and abuse on a daily basis and research shows that children are more often violated by their teachers rather than their peers. In year 2006 legislature decided that school children needed to be protected from the harmful abuse and bullying from other children as well as their teachers. Despite the law approximately 50 000 children are the victims of adult abuse in school every year. Meanwhile science also proves that teachers dare not, for different reasons, confront colleagues when witnessing violations of children.

The purpose of my study was to explore how preschool educators in Kenya look at children's influence on teaching. Researchers have argued that the formal educational system in Kenya today is a remnant of its days as a colony when people were expected to blindly follow rules without questioning them. I have used qualitative interviews as a method in order get the most concrete understanding of educators? views on the influence from children. The educators I interviewed were based at a school I visited in Kenya.

The aim of this paper is to investigate who the visitors are at a children's department at amain library in a larger municipality, and for what purpose they use it. We discuss: Is therea difference between various user groups, and if so, how do they differ'? Which library rolesdoes the children's department have? Does the children's department serve as a local libraryfor those who live in the immediate surroundings or as a main library for the whole municipality?The paper is based on a user survey performed in the spring of 1996 at the City Library ofGothenburg. 417 visitors and five staff members were interviewed.The children's department is used by various groups of people, from young children to seniorcitizens. The library roles are, among other things, an independent learning center and formaleducation support center.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the theories and visions of five futuristic projects at children's libraries in Sweden and Denmark to investigate if these projects have approaches that are significantly different from today's best practices of the libraries and the current theories behind the children's sections.More specific questions are also asked:Are the projects taking advantage of the children's perspective or is it the adult vision of children's needs that is governing?Are the projects promoting collaborations with other actors, thereby facilitating a future development of the children's library by others than librarians?The comparisons reveal that new methods and tools are beeing developed, while the traditional ambitions and views on children and children's needs are essentially unchanged. The role of the library as a social room and meeting place has increased, while its role as a place for finding and transferring information has been challenged by Internet and home computers. The library can still compete as a public place offering relevant contents and assistance by attentive, well-educated adults.In conclusion, the futuristic projects are expected to promote greater variations between children's libraries, by presenting literature, media and information in many different and more innovative ways. Such greater diversity and multiplicity would allow the libraries to market themselves with a clearer message in order to compete with other (commercial) activities for children..

Introduction: More and more children and young people get the diagnosis celiac disease established. Celiac is a life-long disease, which means that the child during the rest of its life has to be on a strictly gluten-free diet. There are few studies so far, which have examined how children having a life-long disease with food treatment and increasing prevalence really experience their health related quality of life (HRQoL).Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine how children (8 ? 18 years old) suffering from celiac valued their HRQoL and to illustrate as well whether the age of the child and its extent of disease when it was taken ill affected the child?s evaluation of HRQoL later in life. The purpose was also to compare whether the children?s parents valued the HRQoL of their children to the same extent as the children did.Method: 160 children, 54 boys and 102 girls were included in the study.

AbstractMy purpose with this study was to learn more about different ways to teach children how to read and to investigate how teachers can use more fiction when they teach.During the years that I have been working in school, I have only met teachers who use a method that is built on sounds. The children learns to read from books where the words is not put in their right purpose; for example; we can se a sun, a dear looks down in a lake.After my teacher-education in literature I became more and more interested in if it could be possible to use more fiction when you teach children how to read. I also wondered if it was possible to find readers where the sentences are put in a meaningful story.I heard of a method called Whole Language, or the kiwi-method and I decided to find out more about that method. I decided to make a comparison between the ?sound-method? and the Whole Language-method.I have been using qualitative interviews with both children and teachers with experience from these different ways of teaching.

The purpose of this study is to find out how the teachers in preschool work with mathematics. How educators working to promote children's mathematics learning and how educators visualize math work. How they plan, implement and document the work of mathematics. I also want to find out how legal guardians perceive their children's mathematics learning in preschool.I have chosen to do interviews with the educators and survey legal guardians to make visible the work of mathematics in kindergarten. I interviewed six teachers who work at both younger and older children department.

The purpose of this study is to focus on library service for children in a hospital, which in turn is seen in relation to a traditional children s library. Four aspects of library work were investigated. These aspects were working methods, partners of co-operation for the libraries, media policy (acquisition, use of the collection and circulation procedures), as well as programme activities for children.The research method was qualitative and comparative in nature, consisting of case studies of two libraries : (1) the library in a children s hospital, known as Bokskogen at Astrid Lindgren s children s hospital in Stockholm and (2) a traditional children s library, the children s department at Eslövs city library. In each library interviews were conducted. The investigation shows that the librarians in the hospital library must be more outreaching and active in order to stimulate children to use library materials.