I denna studie vill vi bidra med kunskap om hur man kan använda barnboken som redskap i förskolans verksamhet. Syftet med studien är att synliggöra förskollärares beskrivningar av hur de arbetar med att levandegöra barnböcker i förskolemiljön. Fokus är på vilka metoder och arbetssätt förskollärarna använder sig av för att bjuda in barnen i barnbokens värld, samt hur de resonerar kring sitt didaktiska förhållningssätt och användandet av barnboken i verksamheten.Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ intervjustudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer med 10 förskollärare från olika förskolor i Mellansverige. För att närma oss hur de levandegör barnboken, använder vi oss av litterära föreställningsvärldar och lekpedagogik.I resultatet framkommer att leken är central för både arbetssätt, genomförande och förhållningsätt. Den mest framträdande metoden är barnboken och att få uppleva den på många sätt. Barnboken är en utgångspunkt i hela arbetssättet. Dramatiseringen genom karaktärerna och miljöerna är andra centrala metoder för att levandegöra barnboken. Ytterligare en metod som framkommer är boksamtal, exempel där förskolläraren tillsammans med barnen diskuterar och pratar om boken under läsningen. I förskollärarnas resonemang är deras intresse, förhållningsätt och delaktighet i leken andra viktiga metoder. Arbetssättet som framkommer beskrivs lustfyllt och fångar både vuxna och barns intresse. I resultatet framkommer att när förskollärarna i studien tillsammans med barnen skapar en delad fantasivärld så kan barnens litterära erfarenheter utvecklas och litteraturen blir levande. De sociala gemenskaperna och arbetssättet främjar fantasi, utveckling och lärande. / This study aims to contribute to knowledge about children’s books as a tool for children’s learning. The purpose of this study is to highlight how preschool teachers describe how they use children’s books in their teaching to invite children into the world of the books and how they make books come alive and elaborate different topics. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with ten preschool teachers from different preschools in Sweden. We use literary fantasy worlds and play-pedagogy in the analysis.The result shows that play is central to both working methods and children’s learning with books. The social communities and the pre-school teachers’ way of working, foster children’s imagination, development and learning. The most prominent method is when children’s books become a starting point in the entire working method and the children can experience the books in multiple ways. The dramatization of book characters and elaborated environments are central methods of bringing the children's book to life. Book talks, where the preschool teacher together with the children discuss and talk about the book while reading it is another method. In the preschool teachers’ reasoning, their interest, attitude and participation in play are important. The working methods that they elaborates are described enthusiastically and captures an interest from both adults and children. The results show that when preschool teachers and children create a shared fantasy-world together, this gives the children literacy experiences and makes literature come to life in a memorable way.

Published Article / Various, multidisciplinary approaches can be used for the treatment of children with learning disabilities (LD). A multidisciplinary approach can include play therapy, remedial therapy, physiotherapy as well as a stimulant medication. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a difference between children with LD and children without LD in terms of differential-sensitivity. Twenty children that have been diagnosed with LD and twenty children without LD participated in and completed a range of actions such as interacting with a number of objects of different colours, sound stimuli, smell stimuli and a two-touch stimulus. The study found that children with LD have more difficulty in identifying their senses and its functions than children without LD. It could thus be possible that if sensory stimulants were integrated into play therapy mediums, that the unidentified child with LD could be identified earlier in that child's life.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a play therapy training programme for youth facilitators of a returned exile children's group. The effectiveness was evaluated qualitatively by using participant observation to determine whether the facilitators were able to assess the difficulties of these children and implement the techniques of play therapy to address these difficulties. Literature was used as a general guideline to determine the criteria needed for lay play therapists dealing with specifically traumatized children. It was found that most facilitators experienced difficulty in assessing aggression, withdrawal, nightmares excessive shyness and thumb sucking as symptoms of difficult behaviour. They were, however, able to recognize more explicit symptoms like fearful behaviour and excessive clinging behaviour accurately. The majority used drawings and observations rather than interviews and history taking as assessment strategies. Mutual storytelling, painting and unstructured play were the primary means of intervention used. It was concluded that although difficulty with assessing age appropriate behaviour was present, the facilitators succeeded in using non-threatening therapeutic techniques to address difficult behaviours in children. In the classification of Overall Communication the facilitators performed quite well. They excelled at listening, understanding and empathy skills. The programme thus succeeded in providing necessary skills, but can be improved structurally to make these skills more accessible. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om die doeltreffendheid van 'n opleidingsprogram in spelterapie vir jeugdiges as fasiliteerdes van kindergroepe vir teruggekeerde bannelinge te evalueer. Deelnemende waarneming is as kwalitatiewe maatstaf gebruik om die doeltreffendheid van die program te meet. Daar word gekyk na die fasiliteerder se vermoë om die kinders se probleemareas te identifiseer en om spelterapietegnieke te implementeer wat hierdie probleme aanspreek. Verder word relevante literatuur gebruik as kriteria vir leke-spelterapeute wat werk met spesifieke getraumatiseerde kinders. Die resultate van die onderhawige studie wys dat fasiliteerders dit moeilik gevind het om simptome soos aggressie, onttrekkingsgedrag, nagmerries, uitermatige skaamheid en duimsuig te identifiseer as probleemareas. Hulle het dit wel moontlik gevind om meer voor die handliggende simptome soos vreesbevange gedrag en oormatige klouerigheid akkuraat te herken. Die meerderheid fasiliteerders het gebruik gemaak van tekeninge en waarnemings vir identifisering van probleemareas eerder as onderhoudsvoering en die insameling van agtergrondsgeskiedenis. Die spelterapietegnieke wat die meeste gebruik was, is die gesamentlike vertel van stories, verf en ongestruktureerde spel. Ten slotte is gevind dat, alhoewel die fasiliteerders gesukkel het om ouderdomsgepaste gedrag te identifiseer, hulle daarin geslaag het om nie-bedreigende terapeutiese tegnieke aan te wend om sodoende probleemgedrag aan te spreek. In die klassifikasie van Oorkoepelende Kommunikasie, het die fasiliteerders uitgeblink in veral luister- begrips- en empatievaardighede. Die program slaag dus daarin om vaardighede beskikbaar te stel, maar sou struktureel verbeter kan word om hierdie vaardighede meer toeganklik te maak.

The aim of the study is to describe how toddlers at pre-school interact with each other during the free play. The following research-questions have been chosen: In which ways are made visible when toddlers interact with each other during the free play? Which repeated patterns are there in toddler’s interaction with each other? The method that was used was observation. Implementing of observations happened during five days on a pre-school. Observations show that the interaction makes visible in various ways when it comes to toddlers, for example through observing, laughing and using the verbal communication. Repeated patterns that are shown are for example eye contact and smile occurs when toddlers interact with each other

This dissertation situates the emergence of women’s intercollegiate sport at the University of Texas from 1927-1992 within the inherent tensions within liberal feminism regarding difference and equality. Specifically, it examines how the rhetoric of fair play functions as a resource for both resistance and social control. The rhetoric of fair play refers to a set of debates and discussions over the structure and meaning of competitive sport. The project proposes three tensions within fair play rhetoric: Discipline or Freedom, Rules as Control or Transformation, and the Universal or Political Athlete. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of liberal, radical and materialist feminism, as well as the cultural theory of Michel Foucault and Raymond Williams, the project argues that values of fairness and meritocracy within sport function dialectically to both empower demands for social change and to extend preexisting hierarchies. A number of questions guided this project: What social norms are at stake during sport competitions? How does fair play rhetoric uphold or challenge these norms? On what basis does fair play rhetoric challenge status quo social conditions? On what basis does it uphold them? And finally, how do the assumptions behind various usages of fair play rhetoric enable and limit their effects on society? Three case studies demonstrate how consecutive women’s sport administrators at Texas used claims to fair play to negotiate the dialectic tension of transcendent claims to sport identity and particular attachments to gender within women’s involvement in sport. Rhetorical tactics shifted from an invocation of sport’s public welfare benefits to political activism on behalf of women’s right to compete at sport. The project sets these varied tactics of sport advocacy within broader contexts of first wave feminism, interwar period Progressivism, social transformations of World War II, Civil Rights activism, and second wave feminism of the 1970s, culminating in the passage of Title IX. The dissertation concludes that the rhetoric of fair play exists within sport, and beyond, as a powerful form of discourse that can be wielded for social control or challenge. What is considered “playing fair” may change with time and perspective but the stakes remain high and thus merit scholarly attention. / text

This multiple-case study describes the literacy events that occurred during play in three holistic preschool classrooms over a four-month period. The data includes field notes from observations and from discourse with participants, audiotape transcriptions, interviews, and writing samples. Analytic induction was used for the analysis. Within play, literacy was used as: a support for play themes, a frame for play themes, and as an extraneous aspect of play. Literacy events involved transactions with print, as well as social transactions. Social transactions within literacy events were analyzed for whether they involved: self-construction of meaning, joint construction of meaning, direct instruction, or challenge. The data show that in print-rich environments, where reading and writing materials are accessible, and where literacy is an expected way of life, teachers can meaningfully facilitate literacy development. The teachers capitalized on the many teachable moments that arose during play by carefully observing children and making relevant literacy-related contributions. The children explored and developed their own understandings about literacy, and at the same time, nurtured literacy development in their peers; literacy development was both personal and social. By themselves, and with support from peers and teachers, the children explored the functions and features of written language, they tested their hypotheses about written language, and they developed strategies used by successful readers and writers. Play was found to be a meaningful and effective medium for facilitating literacy development.

The aim of this studyhas been to capture preschool children's strategies, when they include and exclude each other in play. My aim was also to find out how children choose to integrate into an already existing game. My questions were: What strategies are used by the children at the preschool when they want to exclude or include each other? How to integrate the children when they want to be involved in an ongoing game and how they will be received during the time of play? My theoretical starting points are from Vygotsky's theory of proximal development zone, and Michel Foucault's perspective on power, and also research on the subject. The empirical study was conducted using the observations at two preschools. The children I observed were between four to five years old.The results show that children used different strategies, and when the strategy did not work so the child could switch to another. It also showed that children, who could not get into the game, got the help of other children who were already in play or a preschool teacher.Sometimesthe children received no help at all and gave up the hope to get into the game, or got into it by himself.

As an entertainment media, video games provide pleasure and enjoyment through interactions with various game elements. Some games are more successful in one part of the world than others, which sales data have clearly shown over the years. Games designed in various parts of the world often have distinct differences, as developers implicitly or subconsciously convey their values and culture in their creations. Thus, in examining ?what is fun,? one must move beyond technical aspects of game design and look into immersion and emotional experiences. <br /><br /> In this paper, sales data for 2004 were first examined, followed by a case study to investigate any differences between Japan and the US, where major game console manufacturers and game developers reside. Although they indicated differences in popularity of genres and design approaches, results from the survey were not able to verify conclusively major statistical difference between the two groups of respondents. <br /><br /> The survey was constructed with a focus on narrative and game-play elements, in hopes to get a better understanding of players? preferences through the concept of immersion, which were anticipated to be influenced by cultural differences. Although no major differences were found, given the small sample population, it could be seen that there was a greater sense of character attachment from Japanese respondents, while American respondents did not like to be forced away from their actions by ?long? narrative elements.

This thesis investigates the place and meaning of ‘physical education’ to practitioners and children at three preschool settings in a city in Scotland. The thesis examines the discourses of physical education at the preschools, and interrogates the ways in which the participants engaged with these discourses in order to construct their subjectivities. Preschool physical education has been largely unexplored by researchers and this study thus gives insight into how practitioners and children engage with, take up and resist particular discourses. The study contributes to physical education and early childhood education research by connecting separate bodies of sociocultural, and more specifically poststructural, research related to both fields. A poststructural, Foucaultian theoretical framework underpins the thesis. It features discourse analysis and particularly draws on Foucault’s work around techniques of power and the ‘technologies of the self’. The first step in the discourse analysis involved examining potential sources of discourses the practitioners were likely to draw on. This entailed analysing the physical education sections of the curricular documentation used at the settings (Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence), and analysing texts related to preschool physical education continued professional development (CPD) that some of the practitioners participated in. Analysis indicated that physical activity and health discourses are prevalent throughout the curricular documentation. Discourses related to motor skill development and play also prevail. Motor skill development and physical activity discourses are prevalent in the documentation related to CPD. The second step in the discourse analysis involved analysing language patterns in the participants’ talk. Fourteen practitioners and 70 children participated in the study. Research methods employed were observations, interviews with adults, a group drawing and discussion activity with children, and interviews with children. Discourses related to motor skill development, play, physical activity and health, along with a related pedagogical discourse concerning ‘structure and freedom’, appeared to underpin ‘physical education’ at the three contexts, in different ways. For instance, the settings differed in the extent to which motor skill development underpinned physical education, with pedagogies often being more adult-led where this discourse was stronger. This thesis highlights that preschool practitioners and children engage in multiple, complex ways with a range of physical education discourses that currently have currency in Scotland.

During our university studies we learned about the importance of play for children'sdevelopment. During play children practice many elements, such as social andcommunication skills and they learn easier. This because play is fun and they use theirimagination and creativity to develop their play, creating new games - this isimportant for their learning and development. Therefore, we know that play is anexcellent teaching tool, but I wonder what do pedagogues think of play?I also wonder what factors influence children's play and how important the "oldfashionedplay" or play without modern toys such as electronic toys or gadgets are forchildren's development? Therefore, I travelled to a small village in India, where there is no modern technology,to carry out this study about play. Over the course of ten days I observed childrenplaying and interviewed three teachers in a private school to study how thecircumstances make children create their own toys to play with, and how importantthis play and these toys are for the children's' lives and development. As a result ofthis study I came to the conclusion that economic, religious, cultural and genderfactors influence children's play in this village in India. Creating their own toysdevelops children´s creativity and fine motor skills, and helps them socialize whilethey are teaching each other how to create the toy. In a multicultural society like ours in Sweden, we have many first- and secondgenerationimmigrants in our schools, therefore it is important to learn and understandhow other cultures play and how we as pedagogues see and adopt this kind of playand different games to teach. In this study I want to show another perspective of playto understand our own play in Sweden. I believe that this multicultural perspectivewill only enrich our profession.