ABSTRACT
There is a great discrepancy between what schools expect of children and what the children of underprivileged parents, especially of ethnic minority parents, can achieve, given what their parents offer them. As a result of their underprivileged background, such children often start their school career with educational arrears. Intervention programs for use in schools or the home have been developed to prevent or rectify such arrears. This chapter focuses on one such program, the Home Intervention Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY). Developed in Israel, HIPPY is currently being implemented in several countries around the world (Lombard, 1994), including the Netherlands, where it has been implemented among ethnic minority groups (Eldering & Vedder, 1992).
