ABSTRACT
The welfare of children is seen to depend not only on material benefits, close contact with both parents, role models of both sexes, and on a good educational milieu, but on a reunion of the child and adult worlds. Sweden has been among the laggards in Western Europe in providing care outside the home for its preschool children. In 1977-1978 it could provide for only 13 percent of its three-year-olds, 17 percent of four-year-olds, and 33 percent of five-year-olds. The daily routine is characterized by give and take between children and adults, with the aim of helping children through a continuing dialogue to form a clear sense of their own identity, to develop their own values and their ability to communicate. The preschool may contribute to this by creating a democratic and less sex-stereotyped community for children, but at the cost of further isolating the child's world from that of adults.
