In my degree project I have chosen to write about the social interactions in children?s play. Iwanted to study their free play and the time when their teachers tell them what to play to seewhat their social interactions look like. The purpose with my research is to study whathappens in the social interactions in their different playing situations.I performed three observations of the free play and three observations of the guided play at apreschool to study what social interactions that takes place in the different playing situations.What happens and what patterns can I find in their play.In my research I had some questions that this project rests upon:What happens in the social interactions in the different playing situations?How do the children?s different social interactions look?The children that I have observed showed me that when they are interacting they especiallyuse their cognitive abilities, because an interaction needs a certain mental development.

The aim of this study is to look at the environmental effect on toddlers? social interactions during free play in two older and two newer preschools. Furthermore, we would like to investigate four preschool teachers? thoughts about the indoor environment when it comes to toddlers? interaction during free play.Qualitative methods containing interviews of the preschool teachers and observations of the children during their free playtime have been used to help us reach our conclusions. In addition, our theoretical conclusions have been derived from both the sociocultural perspective and the environmental psychology perspective.Our results have shown that variations in the preschool environment are of importance in the outcome of toddlers? different social interactions.

This social psychological qualitative study demonstrate how the children?s play begin and what significant important it has in the child?s identity progress. The main subject in this social- psychological study is the child?s self and how through imagination, creativity and spontaneity the human?s personal identity is discovered. However the study is based upon the children?s plays in day- care, the children whom are being objects for the study are from 3-6 years old.

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.

The aim of the study was to investigate peer interaction among toddlers 12 to 30 months of age and the teachers? ways to direct the children?s play in outdoor free play situations in a Swedish preschool. Data was gathered through direct observation, and the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty in combination with the assumption of children as social actors built the theoretical framework of the study. The results showed that the toddlers used different strategies to invite peers to interaction and made use of strategies in entering ongoing play that previously have been observed among older preschoolers. These strategies, bodily and therefore in accordance with the phenomenological approach, support the assumption of toddlers as social actors that actively engage in and make sense of their life worlds in the preschool.

This is a qualitative study that explores how bilingual children develop their language through play. The study is based on observations and interviews conducted in a preschool located in a multicultural area of Stockholm.The purpose of using two qualitative methods; observations and interviews, was to get a bigger picture of the study area. The results of the study, illustrated through observations and interviews that I have conducted, shows that the game has great role for bilingual children's language development. Furthermore, the results show that the informants are aware of the importance of play for bilingual children's language development especially when they are talking about investing in the promotion of children's language by using different methods and materials in their pre activity for various games and activities.One of my conclusions is that bilingual children learn the language during both free play and structured play especially when educators are present and aware of the activities that they perform. It is also important to see children as individuals to cover all the needs of children at different activities.

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..

This essay is a philosophical investigation of the relation between children and their play. My aim is to see if children are autonomous when it comes to their play. Is there a moral boundary between those who take part in the play and those who do not? This topic is especially important when it comes to the moral status of a child in the Swedish pre-school. How should educationists act when it comes to children?s play?  Through an analysis of the notions of play and autonomy I show that play can be understood as something of a moral value to the child and if children should be seen as autonomous when it comes to their play.

The aim of this study is to observe Swedish preschool children in their natural habitat and without any intervention. Four different observations are made and thereafter analyzed. Throughout the whole study the subject of interest is the children's communication in their play. Children can communicate with each other in various ways, for instance with speech and without speech, i.e. with their physical language, aesthetic and multi language.

The aim of this project was to develop a product which gives one or more objects of daily use an additional function. Thru the creativity of children the object shall transform into a new source for play for pre-school children.The purpose of this work was to research how fantasy and free play of children could be enhanced. I wanted to know how I can motivate children to use their fantasy transforming objects into new sources for play.This was achieved by means of developing a number of different prototypes which I tested in Kindergarden. My observations lead to the development of a cloth-wrap for the chair which provides the required source for ongoing role-play. The chair suddenly transforms into a new landscape and multi-purpose object where children?s fantasy is stimulated and creative play is supported..

This study deals with play and the importance of meaning of play in the learning process. The aim is to look in to and analyze four preschool teacher´s beliefs and views about the importance of play for children´s learning and development. The study looks at two different preschools, one based on Reggio Emilia- and the other on Montessori- pedagogy, and the aim is to compare the different views and ways of working that the preschool educators have.The theoretical basis for this study is both rooted in a socio-cultural and constructivist perspective, and deals with the relationships between theoretical concepts mean as play, learning, way of working and pedagogy.The study is based on qualitative research methods that consist of interviews and participant observations. The person?s participants in the study consisted of four active preschool educators, who work in two different preschools.The results of the investigation show that the educators have similar views on the importance of play for the children´s learning process, and this also applies to their way of working.

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.

The aim of this study was to examine how children in the age of 5 are communicating in play at the preschool and how their fantasy games are different from each other. In this study, I have gained a greater insight on how to control children's imagination games.My approach has been the observation of three fun times where I also used me out of a voice recorder to record children's voices when their children are communicating with each other during the time of play at the preschool.The results of my study showed that children's fantasy games based on children's past experiences in which children use different themes and characters. The children's communication activities are different from each other. Children have different themes but the deck is based on imagination and communication.Fantasy games that children perform is rooted in the experiences that children get through to experience and see the reality.

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.

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.