The aim of this study was to understand how staff at residential homes for unaccompanied children experiences their professional role. The main focus of the study was on how the staff defines their professional role and how they handle the situation to be close and at the same time keep a distance towards the children in care. Five women and two men were interviewed at five different residential homes for unaccompanied children. By symbolic interactionism we are able to see that the professional roles are shaped through interaction with the children in care as well as in relation to colleagues. The main role for the staff is to build up a relationship with the children.

We studied the initial process of reading, with a focus on typography, whether it ispossible to increase childrens lust to read in the age six to seven years old, byadjusting the typography and graphic design. We conduct this study through qualitative and quantitative studies, mainlyinterviews with a main focus on children in this particular age were used. In additionto the interviews a questioniare were sent out to a selection of students. The studyalso contained an interview with a pedagogue as well as studies of the current andexisting textbooks and teaching aids that is used on the school we are looking into.During the study we consulted educated pedagogues to get an understanding of thechildren and their learning and to be able to approach them in a suitable way.The theories we have been using were mainly from a typographic point of view.Other areas we explored were theories about reading processes. This study showedthat every child needs a method that is suitable for them and that the materialprovided today is typographically inconsistent. The childrens and teachers needs andwishes in typography did not correspond with the current teaching aids design. From this study the followning points were made about how to design a textbook forchildren in the first grade:? The typeface should be a sans serif.? The point size should be bigger than 12 points.? Text should be aligned to the left.? Sentences should be short without becoming abstract.? To maintain focus on the text the layout should be simple and unbarked.? The format should be designed after the pourpose of the publication, forexample when it is a complement to the textbook, the format should be of suchcharacter that it is easy for the children to bring home.? There should be a typographical consistency through all of the materialsprovided to the children..

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine and understand how teachers of younger children view the concept of critical evaluation of information and how their interpretations of the concept relate to their teaching. The need for the development of children?s ability to critically evaluate has been emphasized through research as well as the need for collaboration between teachers and librarians in order to help pupil?s process information into knowledgeThe study has a socio-cultural perspective and the material was collected through observations and qualitative interviews with teachers. The results of the study indicate that many teachers experience uncertainty when it comes to the area of critical evaluation and that they do not teach the subject to any substantial extent.

The aim of this study has been to investigate children and adolescent development in ?The turning point? children´s and adolescent program in Kristianstad. We also wanted to find out the support group leaders experiences concerning the children´s and the adolescents development in programs and how they apprehended their role as a support group leader. Our intension was also to study how the adolescent and the children considered their own development in the program. To carry through this study, we used two types of qualitative methods i.e.

The purpose of this study was to examine how some child welfare case workers say they go about to give children in foster homes the opportunity to be heard. The idea was also to examine how much weight is given to the children?s views and if the respondents believe that the childrens right to be heard has improved over the time they have been working with foster children and if so, how? The study was conducted by using qualitative research method and the analysis of the results was made using Shier?s model of childrens participation. The results have also been tied to previous research in the area. The conclusions of this study was that according to the respondents it?s important that they get to know the children well so that the children can have confidence enough to speak their minds.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the children?s mathematics learning through play. The questions to be answered are: how can teachers facilitate children?s mathematics learning through play? How can play affect children?s math learning? Are the children aware of the role of play in their mathematics learning?My method is based on interviews and observations. My informants are three teachers who work in two different preschools.

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..

The objective for this study was to acquire a greater insight if children with concentration difficulties are assisted by outdoor education in the traditional teaching. With the use of a qualitative methodology four teachers were interviewed. The outcome gave evidence for that the teachers thought that outdoor education has a positive outcome for children with concentrations difficulties. The findings were divided into three key categories: the teacher?s reflections about outdoor education, outdoor education for children with difficulties in concentration and if there was any difference in how the children behaved indoors after having educations outdoors..

To be examined in hospitals can sometimes be perceived aspainful by children. Therefore there is a need for something,which can distract children?s attention from their perceivedpain. During my graduation project, I discovered a designopportunity to work with suspended ceiling systems inexamination rooms, as there is not much to look at whilebeing examined.The result, Twig Ceiling is an interactive nature-inspiredbacklit module with colored LEDs. Twig Ceiling has onelayer of pattern that is visible when the module is not litand the second layer of pattern appears when turning onthe light.

The study aims to contribute knowledge about children's perceptions of the leisure-time as a learning environment. The study can be seen as an attempt to highlight the possible learning in the leisure-time, formally or informally.The study is based on two group interviews with a total of 11 children and was conducted by an interview guide with question areas to be discussed freely so that the children could give as full an answer as possible.Main results of the study show that children feel that they are staying at the leisure-time to get care when their parents are working and that they primarily associate the leisure-time with playing. The results show however that children feel that they learn things when participating in the leisure-time teaches controlled activities.It is possible to draw conclusions about the child actually experienced the leisure-time as a learning environment, but it can be difficult to identify when and how learning actually occurs. However, children do not perceive that there is learning while they play..

The enquiry of this work is to look at introduction to preschool in the 1970s and today. The work examines what four books, two from each time period says about introduction, and the guardian's role in their child's introduction. The study is based on three research questions:What view of introduction in preschool in the 70s does the texts show?What is the view in the texts from "today" about introduction in preschool?What view do these texts have about the guardian's role in the introduction?To find out what the texts say about these questions, the method of this work is text analysis. The attachment theory designed by John Bowlby, works as a theoretical framework for this work.The result shows that the texts from both the 70s and from today advocate a cautious introduction, where guardians are involved.

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 was to describe and analyse the living situation of children who practiced Muay thai at two different Muay thai schools in Thailand. The metod I chose was participation studies with the compliment of open interviews. My main questions were to see if and how the children were affected physically and mentally by the training and possible matches. I also wanted to see if Muay thai practiced by children could be considered child labour, reasons why the children did Muay thai and what opportunities Muay thai gave the children in other parts of their lives.My conclusions were that the training gave the children an overall god physical status, and did not affect the children in any direct negative physical way. Mentally the main affect on the children in training were the stress of not being allowed to eat before matches.

The aim of this study was to investigate, illuminate and discuss teacher?s and multilingual student?s view on the connection between their mother tongue and their learning of other languages. This qualitative study is based on interviews with eight students in the 8th grade and two language-teachers from the same school, as well as ethnographic observations during English and Swedish lessons. With the help of some relevant theories, the empirical study is compared, analyzed and interpreted. The results show that the theories and informant?s view on the connection between the mother tongue and other languages are similar, which is that the mother tongue must be fully established before a new language can be taken in..

Although research on gothic fiction has given limited attention to children?s fiction, the last two decades have witnessed an increasing interest. To date the focus has been mainly on English literature with a recurring tendency to define children?s gothic fiction as a text corpus separate from gothic fiction in general. As a result, children?s gothic fiction has become isolated and is not considered as part of the gothic genre, neither the literature nor its adaptations.The aim of this study is to view children?s gothic fiction as an integral part of the gothic genre.