The Swedish language contains contrasts of tonal word accents, realized by change in the F0 contour. Contrasts of word accents require at least two syllables with stress on the first syllable of the word or a stressed syllable followed by a non-stressed.The purpose of the present study was to examine how five-year-old children living in Östergötland with typical language development produce and discriminate tonal word accents. In addition, it was investigated how these abilities affect each other and comparisons were made to a similar study on children living in Skåne.For elicitation of tonal word accents a set of pictures with contrastive tonal word accents was used. The children were recorded and their answers were evaluated by visual classification of their F0-curves. In a perceptual analysis of the children?s productions, 11 linguistically naive listeners evaluated 44 randomized words from the recordings.

AbstractThe overall purpose of this thesis was to investigate to what extent new research findings, in neuroscience and learning, may be useful in a school improvement context. In a qualitative interview study combined with questionnaire, we have investigated the approach to school improvement that exists in a municipality. Informants have been head teachers in preschool and primary school, special education teachers in a student health team and a development manager. The outcome of the study showed that all of the study participants, all of which have a formal mandated to work for school improvement occurs. It also shows that informants, according to their professional position, express different goals when relating to school improvement.

DETTA EXAMENSARBETES SYFTE ÄR ATT UNDERSÖKA, JÄMFÖRA SAMT ANALYSERA BARNLITTERATUR FÖR ATT KUNNA FÅ EN BLICK AV VILKEN SYN PÅ KÖN BÖCKERNA FÖRMEDLAR SÅVÄL SOM HUR KVINNLIGA OCH MANLIGA KÖNSROLLER KONSTRUERAS I BARNLITTERATUREN I SVERIGE OCH ARABISK BARNLITTERATUR..

This paper investigates the usability of the intelligence test Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability (WNV). Twenty four children in two different age-groups were tested with WNV, 10 children between ages 5 - 6, and 14 children between ages 9 - 10. The WNV turned out to be a useful test when some verbal communication was used in the test situation. This was especially apparent among the younger children, who needed extra verbal instructions and verbal support through the different subtests. The test also contained standardized verbal instructions for all ages.

This examination intends to find out what thoughts children in around 12 years of age thinks about their own television consumption. To examine this, the questions in issue is: ?What does the children watch on television?? ?Why do they watch the programs they do?? ?How do the children speak about their own consumption?? ?What does the children learn from TV?? ?Are the children concious of the impressions they take from TV?? ?Do they speak critical about TV?? ?Is there anything indicating on some kind of influence from the childrens television consumption?? .To answer these questions I have chose to hold qualitative interviews, to let the children?s own thoughts be the foundation of the examination. The theories in this examine are that the person who does the consumption from different forms of television takes the information personally out of her own reality. Meaning that the person watching is the judge of how she applies the information to herself.

The landscape architect is similar to the moviemaker in that they both want to mediate an experience with their creations. The landscape architect designs playgrounds and the moviemaker makes movies for children, but how does the relationship between children and nature look like in the landscape formed by the movie maker?s fantasy? The purpose with this thesis is to study how the relationship between child and nature is depicted in a movie as a medium, by analysing ?My neighbour Totoro?, a Japanese animated movie from 1988 by Hayao Miyazaki. The analysis consists of two combined analyses, Experiential Landscape Analysis and Gordon Cullen?s Serial Vision, both of which analyse the relationship between a human being and her environment as well as the emotional changes that occur as she moves in it.

The purpose of this study was to analyze how the key staff concept is used in residential care for children and young people and which role the key staff concept plays in the organization.The study was based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with six key staff and two managers from two different residential care facilities for children and young people. The theoretical perspective used was the neo-institutional theory and Hasenfeld´s term Human service organizations.One of the conclusions of the study was that the key staff describe that they have a central role when it comes to the treatment of the children. Another conclusion showed the variety of tasks that the key staff have, like the administrative work that they do. They also have an educational role, similar to the one that parents normally have which means that they are responsible of parenting the children. They also described themselves as a link between the children and their social network.

The purpose has been to investigate leisure-time centers actual work on children with attention deficit disorder. In addition, the study strives to make leisure-time centers way of working, in relation to their assignments, visible. The study has also compared how the leisure-time centers work and what the research says. The survey was conducted with the help of three exploratory interviews with pedagogues and three-piece observations at the leisure-time centers. It was carried out at three different schools in two counties in Sweden.The results of the survey show that the schools are trying to create clear procedures, though the centers succeed with this in varied degrees.

The most common preventive and treatment service for children in child welfare services in Sweden is the contact family program. The number of children who are involved in the program has steadily increased. Usually it is a single mother who apply for or is offered this service. The aim with a contact family is that the parent should get respite and that the child should have its network enlarged and sometimes get a male role model.The purpose of this study was to look into how children´s perspective was considered in the contact family process. I have studied the process in order to see how it works and to see to what extent children is participating.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to study librarians? views on children and young people as Internet users in Swedish libraries. It examines what types of problems and possibilities the librarians see with children?s and young people?s use of the Internet, how these problems might be solved, and what they think about regulations and filters. Qualitative interviews were conducted with nine librarians, and their statements were analysed with David Buckingham?s After the death of childhood as a theoretical foundation.

One of the largest work areas for speech and language pathologists is intervention for children with speech and language disorders. The purpose of the present study was to describe and analyze the clinical management of language impairment in children by studying and comparing medical records and literature from the years 2000 and 2009. The present study is a sequel to two previously published papers by Christina Samuelsson (1997; 1999), in which medical records and literature from the 1920-, 60- and 70?s were studied and a paper by Helén Sämfors (2001), in which the years 1985 and 1995 were studied. The medical records used in the present study came from a medical ward for speech and language pathology at a university hospital in Sweden. The results showed that significantly more children were referred to the clinic for speech and language problems in 2009 than in 2000, and more children were treated for their impairments.

The aim of this study was to describe and scrutinise the position of the Swedish government on whether children should participate directly or through a representative in judicial proceedings.The main questions for this study were to find out (1) what position the Swedish government has on the subject, (2) how the position is justified, and (3) what view on children the position reflects.A qualitative design was used in the study and in order to describe the position a descriptive method was used. In the second part of the study a critical approach was used to examine and analyse the position.The main conclusions were that the position is ambiguous but that it mainly reflects, with a few exceptions, that it is better for children to be represented than to participate directly in judicial proceedings. The arguments that are given as basis for the position are short and lack both the objective and subjective grounds needed to decide the best interest of the child. The analysis of the position showed that it mainly reflects a view on children as objects and when the statement reflects a view on children as subjects, it relates to age and maturity in the child..

AbstractThe work will give the picture of what four- and five-year-olds know about the water cycle in nature and in the society. Is there any difference depending on whether a boy or a girl is answering? The work will as well try to describe a picture of how a pre-school could plan their work on a sustainable society, science, and increased gender equality. To answer these questions the information has been received from interviews with children and by studying pre-school?s local plan.    Earlier research on the area of water shows that it is important before working with a new topic to find out what knowledge the children already have, so that the process could be as worthwhile as possible.

The oral sensory ability in children can be assessed through test of intraoral stereognosis and two-point discrimination. Currently, these two tests are not frequently used in clinical settings, and normative data are not always available. The aim of this study was to establish normative data for these two tests in children aged 5;6 to 7;0 years. Further, intention was to compare the results with respect to age and gender. In total 103 children participated, 49 boys and 54 girls.

The purpose of this research has been to study and find out if a diagnose AD/HD is of importance. Does a diagnostic significance matter for how to support and respond to children in school? Are diagnosed children with signs of AD/HD treated differently than children without diagnosis? My study is based on input from teachers, special educators, from two different schools and also one doctor and one parent.I have interviewed teachers, special educators, one physician and one parent. I have been using qualitative interviews with tape recorders and emailed them with open questions. I have been using literature; see bibliography.