KALEIDOSCOOP: AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Kaleidoscoop is the Dutch version of the High/Scope Early Childhood Curriculum.
Kaleidoscoop (High/Scope) is a complete research-based system of education for the preschool and
infant-toddler years. The curriculum has a set of teaching practices for adults, content areas for
children, assessment tools to measure teaching behaviors and children's progress, and a training
model to help adults use the curriculum to support children's development.
Active Learning
The curriculum is based on the belief that children learn best through ‘active learning’, direct, hands-on
experiences with people, objects, events, and ideas. Children are encouraged to ‘construct’ their own
knowledge by pursuing their personal interests and goals, guided by trained adults who understand
the important learning areas for children in the preschool years. Active learning is central to all the
activities in the program, whether planned by adults or initiated by children.
Why is Kaleidoscoop important?
A child’s first years are extremely important to its development. In this period the foundation is laid for
the rest of its life. Children begin learning the day they come into the world. The sequence is which
children learn and acquire skills and knowledge, is more or less the same for all children: they first
learn to crawl and then to walk, they first make sounds and then learn to talk, they first scribble and
then learn to draw a circle etc. But every child learns at its own pace. Every child is unique!
Children learn much from playing, especially from games which they have thought up themselves.
Through play, children investigate and get to know the world around them. They learn about
themselves and about others. They practice, solve problems and process what they have experienced.
Play is therefor not only fun, it is also important for the development of the child. While playing,
children learn things they need for learning at school. Kaleidoscoop calls this play-learning and playworking.
What do children learn from Kaleidoscoop?
Through Kaleidoscoop children learn:
 to work independently
 to make and carry out plans
 to get along with adults and other children
 to solve problems
In this way children learn to think. They develop self-confidence and a positive image of themselves.
Area’s
The classroom is divided into corners: ‘interest areas’. These areas are organized around specific kinds
of play, for example, block area, house area, small toy area, book area, sand-and-water area, art area.
Daily Routine
Every day has a consistent schedule, which is called ‘Daily Routine’. The Daily Routine give children a
sense of control over the events of the day by planning a consistent daily routine that enables children
to anticipate what happens next. A central element of the preschool daily routine is the ‘plan-doreview sequence’; other key elements are small- and large-group times, greeting time, and outside
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time.
Infant-Toddler and Preschool Curriculum Content
In a Kaleidoscoop (High/Scope) setting, children explore, ask and answer questions, solve problems,
and interact with classmates and adults as they pursue their choices and plans. During this process
they engage in teacher- and child-initiated learning activities in 10 child development content areas.
Within each content area are "key experiences" that foster developmentally important skills and
abilities.
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Assessment
The COR (Child Observation Record) is used to evaluate child progress in Kaleidoscoop (High/Scope)
infant-toddler and preschool programs.
In The Netherlands, the Program Implementation Profile (PIP) is used to evaluate the quality of the
program, focusing on five key areas: learning environment, daily routine, adult-child interaction,
curriculum planning and assessment, and parent involvement and family services.
New developments in The Netherlands
Early language and literacy
Kaleidoscoop wants to prevent language and reading difficulties in young children.
The innovative ideas imply:
 emergent literacy (start earlier);
 oral communication (create more opportunities for children to communicate their ideas);
 vocabulary growth (read storybooks aloud and interactively).
The aim of Kaleidoscoop is to integrate these innovative ideas.
Kaleidoscoop for children in the age of 7 – 8 years old
The Kaleidoscoop program is expanded to children in the age of 7 – 8 years old. The objective of this
project is to develop a curriculum for children of 7 years and older, based on the principles of active
learning and to improve the skills of the teachers so that they can implement the principles of active
learning in their classes.
Kaleidoscoop in child day-care centres
The Kaleidoscoop program is now used in child day-care centres (children in the age of 0 – 3 years
old). The infant-toddler daily routine also contains consistent daily elements: arrivals and departures,
choice times, meals, and outside times. These common daily events flex around the individual eating,
sleeping, and bodily care schedules of each infant or toddler.
Special needs
Kaleidoscoop has developed a pilot for children with special needs (behavior problems) in cooperation
with a specialized institute in Amsterdam.
The development of play
Kaleidoscoop has developed a course about young children’s play, existing of 8 workshops.
Central themes of the course are:

The development of a view about young children’s play

Techniques to observe, support and stimulate young children’s play
The development of a basic attitude when (or not) and how to support children.
Implementation in The Netherlands
At this moment there are:
 9.000 children
 225 Kaleidoscoop schools and preschools
 8 child day-care centres



1 organization for youth-care
500 certified teachers
80 endorsed trainers
Research in The Netherlands
Positive effects on teachers and preschool teachers:
 Better learning environment
 More adult-child interaction
 More possibilities to detect early problems
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 More collaboration between preschool teachers and primary school teachers
(Reezigt, G.J.: 'De implementatie van Kaleidoscoop en Piramide', GION, Groningen 1999)
Positive effects on children :
 Vocabulary (Dutch and home language)
 Classification
 Social-emotional stability
(Veen, A., J. Roeleveld en P.P.M. Leseman: 'Evaluatie van Kaleidoscoop en Piramide: eindrapportage'
SCO-Kohnstamm Instituut Amsterdam 2000)
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Research Article
Long-Term Study of Adults Who Received High-Quality Early Childhood Care
and Education Shows Economic and Social Gains, Less Crime
Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W. S., Belfield, C. R., & Nores, M. (2005).
Lifetime Effects: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40. Ypsilanti, MI:
High/Scope Press
A landmark, long-term study of the effects of high-quality early care and education on low-income
three- and four-year-olds shows that adults at age 40 who participated in a preschool program in their
early years have higher earnings, are more likely to hold a job, have committed fewer crimes, and are
more likely to have graduated from high school. Overall, the study documented a return to society of
more than a $17 for every tax dollar invested in the early care and education program.
The High/Scope Perry Preschool study was conducted over 4 decades by the late David P. Weikart,
founder of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation; Larry Schweinhart, High/Scope's current
president; and their colleagues. "These findings can be expected of any Head Start, state preschool, or
child care program similar to the program High/Scope coordinated and then studied," said
Schweinhart. "Our teachers were well-qualified, they served no more than eight children from lowincome families at a time, they visited these families as part of the program to discuss their child's
development, and the classes operated daily for children three and four years old."
What makes the study unique is that the children in the study were randomly assigned either to
receive the High/Scope Perry Preschool program or to receive no comparable program and were then
tracked throughout their lives to age 40. At earlier stages, High/Scope Educational Research
Foundation staff studied these same groups of children every year from age 3 to age 11, and again at
ages 14, 15, 19, and 27. In the High/Scope Perry Preschool program, children participated in their own
education, by planning, carrying out, and reviewing their own activities as part of their learning
experience.
One of the reviewers of the study, Nobel-Prize-winning University of Chicago economist James J.
Heckman, said, "This report substantially bolsters the case for early interventions in disadvantaged
populations. More than 35 years after they received an enriched preschool program, the Perry
Preschool participants achieve much greater success in social and economic life than their
counterparts who are randomly denied treatment."
http://www.highscope.org
http://www.highscope.org/Research/PerryProject/perrymain.htm
Copyright © 2005 High/Scope USA
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LEARNING BEGINS AT HOME
HOME-BASED INTERVENTION PROGRAMMES
INSTAPJE
Instapje is a home-based programme which provides the first step in stimulating communication
between parents and children.
The programme primarily aims at improving the quality of the interaction between parent and child,
ore caregiver and child. It focuses on four dimensions in the parent’s behaviour supporting the child in
daily interaction:
 emotional support
 respecting the child’s autonomy
 providing structure and setting limits on the child’s behaviour
 providing information and explaining situations or tasks
It is in use on a modest scale with Surinamese and Antillean children between the ages of one and two,
and their parents.
OPSTAPJE
Opstapje is a home-based programme for children between two and four years of age from
disadvantaged backgrounds and their parents.
The general objective of Opstapje is to facilitate the transition from home to the Dutch elementary
school for two to four year old children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
To achieve this objective, the programme concretely aims at stimulating certain aspects of motherchild interaction. Therefore, goals have been formulated for the mother on the one hand and for the
child on the other. The most important goal for the mother is to stimulate the mother-child interaction
by broadening the responsive instruction behaviour of the mother. ‘Messages’ for the mother,
formulated in the form of concrete behaviour, make it both easy for her to understand the programme
objectives and to carry out the programme activities.
For the child, the programme aims at enhancing the skills and knowledge that the Dutch elementary
school assumes and expects him/her to have. Developmental areas, such as language development,
fine motor and sensory development, are encouraged by providing and carrying out various types of
play activities with the child.
By thus promoting the mother’s responsive instruction behaviour, a range of the child’s own skills is
stimulated, such as perseverance, problem solving, task-orientation and the ability to plan and carry
out activities.
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The programme lasts two years and has been roughly divided into two parts. During the first year, the
emphasis is on play and child development; the second year focuses on mother-child interaction. This
division is expressed in the worksheets for the mother, the instruction sheets for the neighbourhood
aides, the way of working during home visits and in the training of the neighbourhood aides.
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Opstapje is primarily a home-based programme. This means among other things that it takes place
largely in the home, and that the parent is given an active and responsible role. It consists of home
visits, group meetings for the mother and participating in a playgroup for the children. The
programme lasts to year. Each year consists of thirty weeks. The duration and frequency of the home
visits differs per programme year.
Home sessions are led by the paraprofessional aide. She is responsible for supplying the programme
materials, carrying out play activities with mother and child and for transferring information. For the
mother, the paraprofessional aide functions as a role model of how to associate with the child.
The fortnightly group meetings are led by the project coordinator assisted by the neighbourhood aide.
These meetings support mothers in carrying out and staying with the programme. They also support
them with their children’s upbringing. During the group meetings, the mothers discuss and are
informed about topics such as child development, education, and various aspects of child rearing.
Another function of the meetings is to familiarize the mothers with neighbourhood facilities and
services, such as playgroups, schools and toy and book libraries.
OPSTAP
Opstap is a home-based extra-curricular programme for children between four and six years of
age from disadvantaged backgrounds and their parents.
The general objective is to adequately prepare these children for schooling. More specifically, the
programme aims to stimulate language and cognitive development as well as socio-emotional
development. Enhancing learning conditions by providing children with the knowledge and skills
required for successful school learning goes alongside supporting pedagogical family interaction.
Encouraging parental responsive behaviour is therefore a key element in the programme. A responsive
child-oriented style of interaction has a positive impact on the child’s socio-emotional and cognitive
development and promotes skills, which are highly valued in the Dutch education system.
By providing activities and materials, parents learn to:
 respect their child’s autonomy;
 praise and encourage their child’s initiatives;
 provide structure and set limits on their child’s behaviour.
Furthermore, they learn to support their child in carrying out and completing a task by organizing its
attention and activity and to be sensitive to their child’s competence in particular tasks so that
responsibility is given to the child when he/she is able to handle it. The child can thus become an
active learner.
Opstap lasts two years and consists of fortnightly home visits and group meetings. Most programme
activities take place in the home environment as mother and child carry out these activities together.
As in Opstapje a paraprofessional neighbourhood mother visits the parents every fourteen days to
demonstrate the accompanying activities and materials. She instructs and supports the parent by role
modelling, and other methods of transferring knowledge and skills.
The group meetings are led by the coordinator. The group discusses the programme materials and
activities as well as themes regarding parent-child interaction and other aspects of child rearing and
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education. The coordinator also trains and assists the paraprofessional aides.
Opstap consists of a script and a programme for group meetings supported by audio-visual materials,
a materials box, worksheets for parents and children, children’s books, a series of stories, and manuals
for coordinators and neighbourhood aides.
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Research Article
Efficacy of an intensive home-based educational intervention programme for 4to 6-year-old ethnic minority children in the Netherlands
Cathy van Tuijl, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, c.vantuijl@fss.uu.nl
Paul P.M. Leseman, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jan Rispens, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
This paper reports the results of an intensive home-based educational intervention programme for 4to 6-year-old children at risk of educational failure. The programme, Opstap Opnieuw ("Step-up
Anew"), was developed in the Netherlands as an alternative to the well-known HIPPY-programme, of
which a Dutch version was carried out in the early 1990s for ethnic minority groups, without apparent
success. Building on the basic intervention strategy of HIPPY (i.e., involving mothers and
paraprofessional aides), a new curriculum was developed based on recent theoretical insights in
cognitive and language development, and emergent literacy and numeracy. The programme was
carried out with Turkish and Moroccan immigrant families. For the Turkish group, the results were
partly positive: There were modest effects of the programme on cognitive development and emergent
numeracy, small effects on Turkish language development, but no effects on Dutch language
development. In contrast, for the Moroccan group the effects were disappointing. The results are
evaluated with respect to recent insights into effective strategies and essential ingredients of early
educational intervention programmes.
http://jbd.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/25/2/148
Copyright © 2001 by International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development
Research Article
Improving mother-child interaction in low-income Turkish-Dutch families:
A study of mechanisms mediating improvements resulting from participating in
a home-based preschool intervention program
Cathy van Tuijl, Paul P.M. Leseman
Department of Child and Adolescent Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
This study examined whether the effects on cognitive and language outcomes of a recently developed
home-based educational intervention program, Opstap Opnieuw, for 4-6-years-old disadvantaged
children could be explained by improved mother-child interaction. The present sample (n=30) was
drawn from a larger sample of Turkish-Dutch families (n=181) for which in a previous study significant
effects of Opstap Opnieuw were found on children's (first) language and cognitive pre-math skill, 5
months after the program ended. The present study focused on two facets of interaction quality as
possible mediators of these program effects: the mean cognitive distancing level of mothers'
communication and instruction behaviour as an indicator of the cognitive and verbal stimulation
provided, and the degree of cooperation as an indicator of mothers' social-emotional support to their
children. Both measures were based on systematic observation of mother-child interaction during
sorting tasks. Participation in the program appeared to improve mothers' social-emotional support
behaviour substantially, but not their cognitive distancing behaviour. For Turkish (first language)
vocabulary, about half of the program effect appeared to be mediated by the improved socialemotional support. For cognitive pre-mathematical skills, two-thirds of the program effect appeared to
be mediated by improved social-emotional support. Mothers' cognitive distancing was moderately-
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strongly related to children's vocabulary development, but did not mediate program effects. Some
implications of the results are discussed.
http://www.multilingual-matters.net/jmmd/022/0309/jmmd0220309.pdf
Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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NIZW Youth
P.O. Box 19152
3501 DD Utrecht
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (30) 230 67 29
Fax: +31 (30) 231 96 41
http://www.nizwjeugd.nl
http://www.ontwikkelingsstimulering.nl
http://www.kaleidoscoop.org
http://www.stapprogramma.nl
http://www.youthpolicy.nl
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