The objective of this thesis is to explore the prerequisites for children?s participation in the activities of the public library as expressed by six children?s librarians. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out to investigate how the librarians interpreted the concept of participation and viewed power issues between children and adults. Further, difficulties and possibilities experienced in working with children?s participation and manifestations of children?s participation in everyday library work were also investigated.

The purpose of this thesis is to create conditions in order to plan lighting to a library room after children's needs and wishes, and to gain deeper knowledge about how children experience different lighting environments and what they perceive as good lighting. I was given the task by Huskvarna library to design a lighting plan for their children's department. This is part of the project "Library 2.1-room as a medium" that is going on at Huskvarna library since fall 2007. My questions at issue are: 1. What do children consider as good lighting in a library? 2.

The aim of this essay is to get a view of the contemporary approach to children´s learning and how children´s learning and development are influenced by the preschool year for six- year olds, by analyzing the Swedish curriculum. What is the purpose of the preschool- year for six year-olds? What does the curriculum say about what children need when entering primary school? I also wish to investigate how through the curriculum common norms and standards, as far as children´s learning are concerned, are shown and discussed. My result show that the curriculum does not mention much about the preschool year for six-year-olds at all. It seems that this year in school is not given priority, which makes it difficult for the teachers to work with the children of this age and to know what their assignment is.

Children with Reading and Writing Difficulties and Their Language and Cognitive AbilitiesA Comparison with Children with a Cochlear ImplantAbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the cognitive abilities that are important for reading in children with reading disabilities, children with a cochlear implantation and typically developed children. 64 children aged 10-12 years participated in the study. To answer the question at issue we used the following tests: Block Design from WISC III, PPVT III, TOWRE, SL 40 and a few chosen tests out of the SIPS battery. On tests of the lexical access children with reading disabilities performed at the same level as hearing children, while the children with a cochlear implant performed significantly lower. Test of the phonological and complex working memory showed that children with reading disabilities performed significantly higher than children with a cochlear implant, but at the same time lower than typically developed children on the test of phonological working memory.

For an outdoor environment to function optimally as a playarea requires that it is flexible, that is, contains places and elements that give room for the imagination and for own interpetretations, and also that the children in some way can influence and change their surroundings. It is also important to have variety, both in the sense that the playground has a unique character that distinguishes it from other places, and that it allows many different games and activities. There should for example be room for both wild games of running and moving around where many children can participate, and calm corners to withdraw to for rest or quiet play. A good playground should surprise, challenge and encourage children to discover their surroundings. One way to achive this is to use plants and materials from nature, whose irregular forms and structures can become interesting elements to explore. Vegetation also gives sence-experiences of various kinds, materials like twigs and leafs to play with and a place to play house.

This report investigates digital games with focus on differences and similarities between children?s point of view when it comes to games focusing on learning compared to those focusing on entertainment. The approached group was children, 7 years old. The study contains investigations and analysis of how these children used games in both school and home environment. The most used theory ?8 theories of fun? by Marc LeBlanc (2004) raises the most important parts making a game fun.

AbstractThe project "Sound and Play" have been implemented in collaboration with the toy company BRIO in Malmo. The purpose of the project was to examine whether and how BRIO in the future could develop toys around sound for Toddlers.The problem formulations that would be answered after completion of the project was "How could BRIO broaden its product range with the help of audio toys?", "How can you combine toys and sounds in an interesting way for children?", "How do you create a toy with sound that is fun for the child, but not annoying for parents?". Currently BRIO only has two toys with sound in this age group.The expression of the toy was going to be a mix of classic and cool and the overall feeling of the toy was going to be explorative and arouse curiosity in the child. This feeling would be communicated through simplicity and joy.

The aim of this masters thesis is to examine what intentions handbooks, laws and regulations have had about children and childrens literature, as we think that they can serve as guiding principles for childrens libraries in Sweden. The questions are: what signals have the childrens libraries got from the documents concerning the view of children and childrens literature during the 20th century? What has the social opinion about children been during the 20th century? How have children been seen during the 20th century? The method we used is a qualitative source analysis of mention above documents seen from a hermeneutical point of view. This analysis is woven together with the social opinion on children during the 20th century. Our results show that the aim of childrens literature before 1945 was a pedagogic and moral one.

AbstractThis project discusses various aspects of children's way to explore nature with their senses. Therefore I conducted a study in two preschools, one nature-oriented and another preschool. This study was carriedout usien the three metods, interviews, observations and surveys. Interview four children from each preschool, observations of each group outdoors during four different occasions and question forms to teachers. The result of the study showed that both teachers and children have a great interest in being outdoors in nature, but it is not always possible to take out all children's groups. The reason is large groups and inadequate staff.

Introduction: In Skaraborg, a standardized dialogue is being held since 2005 about dietand physical activity, during the 1,5- and 3-years health control at the Child Health Carecentre (CHCC). The aim of the dialogue is to prevent overweight and obesity amongchildren. Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the parents? experience of thisdialogue, and what they perceive that the dialogue has contributed with after sixmonths. Methods: Qualitative collection of data through 11 interviews heldimmediately after the dialogue, in addition to five telephone interviews conducted six toeight months after the dialogue.

That all children today receive the opportunity to explore all of their capabilities is not certain at all preschools. Today there are preschools that are not able to work actively to explore the children's abilities because the large number of children and not enough teachers. Therefore I want to find out with my research how the educators would react when there is a crisis with the youngest children, the toddlers. I also want to find out different ways of acting in everyday situations at the preschool and why the teachers act in that way. I have relied on qualitative methods and I have used the critical incident method in my study.

That all children today receive the opportunity to explore all of their capabilities is not certain at all preschools. Today there are preschools that are not able to work actively to explore the children's abilities because the large number of children and not enough teachers. Therefore I want to find out with my research how the educators would react when there is a crisis with the youngest children, the toddlers. I also want to find out different ways of acting in everyday situations at the preschool and why the teachers act in that way. I have relied on qualitative methods and I have used the critical incident method in my study.

The focus of this thesis is on what is considered to be a suitable foster home. For the study to be carried out an application had to be made to get access to the foster home assessments in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. With the support of attachment theory and theory of standards different categories have been picked out and analyzed in foster home assessements that have been approved. The conclusion to what is considered to be a suitable foster home is a complex issue, as there are many factors that are interacting. Social workers seem to focus on the importance of a family?s ability to provide some kind of stability and security for a child who is considered to be placed within their home.

The purpose of this study was to examine how some children with reading problems experience and use libraries. The main problem was: How do dyslectic children experience and use libraries and how do they handle their reading difficulties when using libraries? The questions at issue were: 1. Do children with reading problems use libraries, and if so how? - in which purposes do they use libraries? - which materials and services do they use? - why dont some children use libraries? 2.

Play is an important part of children´s everyday life, it is through play children develop. Play occurs a lot in kindergarten and in this study, the aim is to examine how play activities play is used in preschool teaching and the role of the teacher´s in the play. Video recordings of play activities done and qualitative methods (conversation analysis) has been used to analyze the video recordings. The results of this study show that play are widely used as a pedagogical tool in preschool. It is through play children develop.