Settlement Music School’s Kaleidoscope programme is linked to stronger school readiness, vocabulary and emotional development, while a new online platform aims to take its arts-based approach beyond Philadelphia.
A Philadelphia preschool built around music, dance and art is drawing attention for results that researchers say go far beyond creativity. At Settlement Music School’s Queen Village campus, the Kaleidoscope programme is designed to prepare very young children for school by strengthening skills such as pattern recognition, following directions, spatial awareness and working in groups, while using the arts to make those lessons stick.
Dr Ellie Brown, a child psychologist at West Chester University who has studied the programme for two decades, said the findings were striking enough to change her view of what early childhood education can achieve. Speaking about her early work on the school, she said it was a “wow” moment, and added that most programmes do not produce much measurable change. In this case, she said, the impact was profound enough that “you want the world to know about it”.
Research highlighted by Settlement Music School says children who attended Kaleidoscope for two years showed stronger achievement than those who attended for only one year, along with greater gains in receptive vocabulary than children at a comparison preschool. The school has also pointed to evidence of improvements in school readiness, emotional development and stress reduction, building on Brown’s broader work at West Chester University on how music and the arts can support children’s development, particularly in communities facing economic hardship.
Settlement is now extending that approach beyond its own classrooms through KWEST, an online teaching platform aimed at teachers and home educators. Tarrell Davis, the school’s director of early childhood programmes, said the model reflects the way children learn in different ways. If a child does not grasp a pattern through music, Davis said, they may understand it better through movement, where they can use their whole body to work through the idea. Brown’s lab has long argued that arts-based learning can help buffer stress and trauma while supporting cognitive and emotional growth, and the new platform suggests Settlement wants that approach to travel well beyond Philadelphia.
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