The study which has been made is a qualitative observational study where play forms and participation of adults were observed in two preschools. The word play is defined in the study with an ?as-if? ?nature based on Knutsdotters definition which differs play and activities from each other. The observed play form has been analyzed according to the concept of imitation and imagination play. To get a complete base of the study a few children on some occasions drew what they played or would like to play.Through photographs of these drawings and how the children described and explained what they drew a connection could be made with the children?s play forms.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how teachers perceive that they work with science in preschool through aesthetic learning processes as tools both in the indoor and outdoor environment and make visible what the educators' underlying beliefs are that affect how they perceive aesthetic learning processes as tools used to deepen children's understanding of different scientific phenomena.This is an interview study using the phenomenographic approach as a means and method to make visible and report on teachers' views on how aesthetic learning processes can be used to extend preschool children's learning about science. The results are analyzed and discussed based on John Dewey's theoretical ideas about children's learning, aesthetics and science.The study clearly shows that teachers' views on aesthetic learning processes and how they can be used in the work whit science is very divided and in some cases unreflective. The most striking results are that teachers often are unaware that they make use of aesthetic learning processes because they have a more limited view of what it is than we have in the paper. All informants have science as a core subject. Their focus of the activity is located at the showing and visualizeing of scientific phenomena and some of them express that they submit the aesthetic learning processes to their colleagues or that they collaborate with someone who has training in some art form.

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 this study is to examine the language, used in parts of The day care report of 1968 (?1968 års Barnstugeutredning?). The day care report of 1968 was a public investigation appointed by the cabinet intended to prepare new policies on the part of the Swedish state.  I focus on the change, which can be assumed to have occurred, when replacing the names ?day care? (?dagis/daghem?) and ?kindergarten? (?lekskola?) with the name ?preschool? (?förskola?).

Children at the age of six, has since 1991 been allowed to start their tuition in the Swedish school system. Studies reveal that; the first school year (preschool) can be a stressful task dueto the new environment, new friendships and higher expectations.The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how the teachers perceive their own role in the transitioning process from preschool to school. This purpose required a method of qualitative complexion and therefore qualitative interviews were used. The material is based on four interviews with four different teachers. The teachers were asked the same question considering; the transition from preschool to school from a pupil point of view, their own role in that transition and their opinions on different educational tools.

The aim of this study is to examine the language, used in parts of The day care report of 1968 (?1968 års Barnstugeutredning?). The day care report of 1968 was a public investigation appointed by the cabinet intended to prepare new policies on the part of the Swedish state.  I focus on the change, which can be assumed to have occurred, when replacing the names ?day care? (?dagis/daghem?) and ?kindergarten? (?lekskola?) with the name ?preschool? (?förskola?).

The aim of this study was to investigate preschool teacher?s perceptions about the curriculum goal concerning simple chemical processes. The result was based on narratives received by a qualitative study and semi-structured interviews of six preschool teachers. The results of the study showed that preschool teachers perceive that they actually are working in a relatively small scale with simple chemical processes and they do not really know what simple chemical processes are, and do not feel very familiar with the subject. Water, dough, mud, paint and baking were the most common activities that were used when working towards the curricular goal. However, it was never explained to the children that it was simple chemical processes they were working with during the activities, neither was it discussed among colleagues because of the uncertainty about the concept.

Ear disease and hearing loss in preschool children can be difficult to discover and diagnose. This paper investigates ear disease in 20 children controls from 1 to 5 years of age. The aim of the study was to map prevalence and incidence for ear disease, and prevalence of hearing loss in a group of children.Twenty children wide aged 1, 1½, 3 and 5 were included and investigated according to a set protocol with psychoacoustic tests, tympanometry, ear microscopy and a parental questionnaire. The majority of the children could be evaluated by age adequate psychoacoustic tests and otoscopy. Tympanometry was the investigation method that was most difficult to perform.

The purpose of this study is to explore how preschool teachers succeed in their mission to conduct work that will enhance children's interest and knowledge in technology. The study was conducted by qualitative semi-structured interviews among eight teachers at seven preschools in the same municipality. The method was chosen because I wanted to get as detailed and full answers as possible. I also wanted to find out their individual perceptions. The result shows that most of the teachers think that they have insufficient knowledge to practically work with technology. At the same time they?re expressing that technology is a broad area that sometimes is a little more complicated than it needs to be.

This study discloses Swedish human service organizations and their methods of integrating unaccompanied children into the Swedish society. The purpose of the study is to investigate how social workers at HVB-homes for unaccompanied children depict their experience in and knowledge of how the unaccompanied children are integrated into Swedish society. The method of investigating the questions raised by the purpose of this thesis has been qualitative analysis of answers derived from interviewing personnel at HVB-homes for unaccompanied children. In doing so we have made use of a semi-structured method of interviewing the above-mentioned personnel. The data derived from these interviews has thereafter been analysed and filtered through the concept of integration and the theoretical formations human service organizations and street-level bureaucrats.

Preschools are nowadays a big part of almost every childhood in Swedish society and the relationships that are built there are important for the child and the child?s future integration in the world of knowledge and education. The preschool teachers are therefore the first persons the child links to beyond the parent. That?s why the relations between the parent and the preschool teacher are an important and interesting aspect in the cooperation between them.

The purpose of this study was to broaden knowledge about how native language support works in three pre-schools departments in a multicultural area. The questions were how native support works in the current pre-schools departments, which language development methods and forms used by educators to work with native language support, and if they experience any difficulties. I used interviews as a research method, with three child-care and one preschool teacher.The results showed that all departments on both of the pre-schools have native language support with a permanent bilingual staff, outside the ordinary activity. The mother tongue is also spoken in the everyday activities in two of the departments. The third department is only spoken native language with their children if they do not understand what they say in Swedish, or if they are sad.The concrete material is lifted up as a good and important tool in all three language groups, because verbal language is not always enough for all children to understand.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate children?s access to specific children?s activities at Swedish public libraries 2005. The thesis is based on literature studies and qualitative interviews with children?s librarians, library directors and local politicians at two demographically different libraries in Gothenburg.The sub questions are: What measures exist to promote children?s access to public libraries and children?s activities when it comes to: law and other political statements: different efforts on the state level and different efforts on the municipal level in the direct activity with children at public libraries? What driving forces and needs justify activities for children at public libraries? How will the responsible persons judge that the efforts are sufficient? The result of the study shows that children?s access to library activity has increased in the last couple of years due to reorganization, economic savings with closing down of library affiliates and because libraries have given priority to other things, like IT and new media. Children?s librarians have got new assignments and less time for children?s activity.The conclusion of our investigation is that children?s librarians are ambitious in their work, but unfortunately don?t give children?s library activity adequate resources.

This is a study where the purpose was to investigate whether preschool teachers have a positive or negative attitude to outdoor education. Their view of outdoors education is also treated. The methods used were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The survey was sent to all preschool teachers in three municipalities and on a social network. The interviews were conducted at a preschool, which had a form of outdoor profile.

The purpose of our examination was to survey how one preschool works with so called language groups, if the mother tongue is important and if the informants can see any complex of problems in the inclusive/exclusive way of working with language groups in the preschool. The literature review provides for example the three most important areas of mother tongue, which are the emotional, the social and the intellectual (Ladberg, 2000). Further it describes the difference between the conceptions integration and inclusion, when today the concept inclusion is preferred (Tøssebro, 2004). We were inspired by qualitative interviews as our method and from a phenomenographic perspective described the informants? perceptions about the named phenomenon.