This study was designed to describe and understand how children perceive and explain mathematical situations. During our work based training we have met several students who have been insecure in the subject of mathematics and therefore come to think that it's difficult and boring. The questions we have asked ourselves are why and how this insecurity occurs. In preschools around the country teachers actively worked to create opportunities for children to meet and discover mathematics. The question is whether the teachers are aware of how children perceive mathematics and how children think in mathematical situations. We chose to conduct a qualitative study using different methods of data collecting in order to approach the children's world.

In this experience-based essay, I give examples of events that take place during a typical day at preschool. By highlighting these everyday events, I discuss around the parental role and its importance for children and child development. I apply a historical review when it comes to views on children and child rearing, and reflect on different approaches that we have towards the children. In the discussion, I reflect on the Childs need for boundaries, and thereby try to understand why we act differently in this respect. To gain more knowledge and understanding of the events I have taken help from theories in literature and from my own practical knowledge.

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.

Purpose: This study examines pedagogues? thoughts about children?s understanding of death, and their reactions to the death of a relative. The aim is also to examine pedagogues? thoughts about their part in supporting bereaved children, and how they wish to do so. Method: Seven pedagogues, who work with six to nine year old children, were interviewed.

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 purpose with this study is to find out the experience of growing up in a family where the biological parents, has taken the assignment as family child caregiver?s. We have taken the help from the following question formulations to immerse ourselves in the subject. How do the biological children experience their relationship to their parents? How do the biological children experience their relationship to the children who are placed in their home? How do the biological children experience their participation in the family home? How do the biological children experience the need for support from outside the family? We have used a qualitative research method and interviewed six respondents with help from a semi-structured interview guide to get the respondents unique experiences told.

The aim of this descriptive review was to elucidate how the literature describes how children of parents with mental illness experience and have knowledge about their parent?s illness. The aim was furthermore to describe how the children?s existence is affected, can be improved and why the children so often are invisible. Search through Medline (through PubMed) database and additional manual search was conducted.

The aim of the study was to examine what workers in social services considers physical child abuse and in which way social services work with children who have been exposed to physical child abuse. The study also examines which interventions are available and how physically abused children assimilate these. I've interviewed four child-welfare officers and for those interviews I've used the qualitative semi-structured method. The results shows that all my respondents have different views on on the definition of physical child abuse. The result also shows that the municipality which the children belongs to plays a major role in which children can get help with their problems.