Studies show that the interest and knowledge about science among teenagers is decreasing. They also reveal the difficulties to explain the ecological processes and that the ideas about the nature are collected from everyday life and early school years.The intention of this investigation was to find out more about children?s ideas and knowledge about the ecological processes and to compare these results with the curriculum.The method was a questionnaire and interviews with children in school year 1 ? 6. The aim of the studies was also to find out if any progress connected to age could be found, concerning understanding of the ecological processes.The results showed difficulties in achieving the predestined goals for biology and chemistry concerning ecology cycles and they differed a lot between the children. Often the learning process showed very little progress.

On November 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Today more than 20 years later the convention is ratified by all countries in the world except the USA. A question asked is however if the convention after 20 years of development work has in fact accomplished some positive effects for children around the world? The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in selected states and to reach this aim some questions need to be answered: What do the selected states do to realize the best interest of the child?What do the selected states do to guarantee all children?s right to survival and development?Do all children in the selected states have the same right to health and health services?Do all children in the selected states have the same right to education? The material studied in this thesis is those reports that are to be sent periodically to the Committee on the Rights of the Child by all states. The result of this study shows that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has made some positive progresses when it comes to the situation of the child in the world.

My purpose with this essay is to examine the relationship between esthetic learning processes and language development to find good practices in my work with multilingual children. In my report, I describe a few activities from my work as a preschool pedagogue in a multicultural area, with a large group of children where age and knowledge of Swedish varies. The background to this essay is the problems I experienced in my work with children´s language development in an organization that, in my opinion, is limited by economic factors. The questions I poses are about the way esthetic learning processes can help children develop their language skills as well as their participation in preschool activities. I also pose the question whether there is a connection between the musical ear and children´s development of language.

To be able to read and write is necessary to manage well in life. It is important to get a good start in one´s reading and writing development. My purpose in this study was to find out how to teach children to read and write. Obtain knowledge about how to best help children during the early years of reading and writing development, and what is required to teach good reading and writing skills.I wanted to find out how the pedagogues work in the schools, and if they use ant special methods in their teaching. This is something that I, as a future pedagogue didn´t have much knowledge about, which is very important for my future pupils.My research method was qualitative where I interviewed three pedagogues who work whit teaching reading and writing in the early years.

The integration policy in Sweden shall encourage individuals to support themselves and take part in society. It shall alsocontribute to equal rights and opportunities for women as well as for men. In Borlänge this has resulted in a program ofintroduction for new arrivals from other countries. However, at the unit responsible for economic support, they havediscovered that women with immigrant background more often than men seem to have trouble starting or became to anending of the program, which then especially leads women to a long-term dependence for economic support. The purpose of this study has therefore been to investigate what factors affect immigrant women?s participation in theintroduction, and what significance this participation has for their possibilities to become economically self-supporting,and integrated into Swedish society.

The aim of this study was to examine bilingual childrenslexical organization and to investigate weather bilingual children hadundergone the syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift in grade four. Thirtychildren from multi-ethnic areas were tested with Kent-Rosanoff wordassociation test in both Swedish and Arabic. The results showed thatmore than 40% of the children had undergone the shift in bothlanguages, 20 % had undergone the shift in only one of theirlanguages and almost 40% had not made the shift in any language. Acomparison with results from monolingual Swedish children in gradethree in a previous thesis, showed that the bilingual children in thisstudy did not reach the corresponding level of lexical organization.The study points to the necessity of including tests regarding lexicalorganization when assessing both mono- and bilingual children withsuspected language impairment. The study also underscores theimportance of supporting mother tongue development in bilingualchildren by for instance adequate mother tongue education.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe, analyze and compare university students? desire to have children, when they wanted to have their first and last child and their knowledge about fecundity in relation to the background factors: age, gender and educational level. This study will also investigate differences regarding university students? desire to have children along with when they wanted to have their first and last child and their knowledge of declining fecundity at increasing age. Method: A descriptive, comparative, cross-sectional study with quantitative method was used in the study.

The aim of this study was to examine the relations between women?s perceived stress off the job (dependent variable), responsability for household chores, emotional support, number of children living at home, neuroticism and age (independent variables). Comparisons between the present sample and two independent samples from previous research were made with regard to perceived stress and neuroticism. The sample of this study consisted of 186 women working in the fields of health care and geriatric care. The results showed that perceived stress correlated positively with neuroticism and number of children and negatively with emotional support, though the effectsizes for number of children and emotional support were fairly small.

The purpose of the study was to look into bilingual parents?perspectives on their own and their children?s communication andcommunication disabilities. Furthermore the study aimed to examine theseparents? needs regarding education in augmentative and alternativecommunication (AAC) and whether ComYoung communication course hadmet the needs. ComYoung address parents of school-aged children withextensive communicative disabilities and intend to give them increasedknowledge in communication and AAC.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to review Swedens unique law against TV-commercials intended for children under twelve years old. The law has to be abided by TV 4, but not by Kanal 5, so the aim is also to compare TV 4 and Kanal 5 and to see in what different ways commercials are shaped in the two channels. The cultural policy analysis is based on our aim and problem. We have also had the terms semiotic and intermediality in mind together with a model made by the researcher in semiotics Roman Jakobson. The model consists of six different communicative functions.

Early during my education to become an afterschool-teacher a concern was raised that afterschool-programs will continue to be seen as an institution for childcare services. In this experience-based essay, I discuss what I see as the coreproblem: the free- and planned activities. What do the free- and planned activities actually mean for children's development and what is it that determines how much space the various activities will be allowed to take?In my attempts to answer this question, I go through the concept of leisure, the importance of children?s play and adults responsibilities in children?s play, what the different policy documents say about children?s play and the creative work, staff skills and theoretical and practical knowledge. I question whether I was right in the story that I begin this essay with, and conclude that it is more difficult than I previously thought to find an answer to the question..

Today many separated children and youth up to 18 years - children in the sense of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - flee from war and armed conflicts around the world. Many of them come to Sweden for protection and to apply for asylum.The aim of this study is to examine how the national Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå - TT - constructs the image of separated children and youth. The main research questions have been: How does TT construct the image of the separated refugee children? The more detailed questions put to examine this main question have been: what are the issues being focused in the reporting and what discourses, voices and sources are let into the journalistic material?The theoretical perspective should be considered as social constructionistic where the basic idea is that the image of the separated child also constructs the way society looks upon them, their rights and their needs, affecting how these children will be welcomed and treated when thay arrive in our society. The empirical study is a qualitative analysis of text, produced in the span 2007- April 20th 2010.

This study is essentially based on my own questions concerning contemporary playgrounds. Why are they so unimaginative? What do the children say about them? Is it possible to create playgrounds less constructed, and with more natural elements? This report starts with references to literature studies, personal references and my personal view, and ends with a suggestion for a physical solution for an actual day care centre. The aim is to learn more about how the natural environment affects children, the importance of playing, and try to use this knowledge in a design of a day care centre. My main theme can be summarized in the following question: Why is natural elements in playgrounds considered to be healthy for children? I wanted to create a playground with natural characteristics which I myself would have appreciated as a child.

Debates about suitable content in children's literature occur regularly. In spring 2010 such a debate took place in Sweden. The purpose of this Bachelor's thesis is to analyse the debate to identify ideas concerning the role of children's literature in society. A second aim is to examine how children's literature is described and which concepts are used by the debaters. The empirical material used for the analysis consists of ten articles, blog posts, radio- and TV- features published in March 2010.

The study focuses on the use of poetry in language teaching in the lower grades in the Swedish school. Poetry has a reputation of being an art form with such specific rules and structures that children and teachers think that it is something that they do not have the ability to work with.  The purpose of this study is to get an understanding of how poetry is used in educating children. My research is based on the following questions. To which extent is poetry being used in schools and how is it being used?Can you as a teacher see any effects on childrens language development by using poetry?As a part of my study I have met with and interviewed four different people, who in one way or another is involved in teaching children. Two working teachers in the lower grades, one pedagogical resource and one artist that work with teachers in reaching different goals through the help of aesthetic processes.