Nursery teams up with care home to bring younger and older generations together
Children from the East Dereham Day Nursery have been visiting the residents at Sanford House Care Home to bring younger and older generations together. Picture: Supplied by Sarah Hudson - Credit: Archant
A mid-Norfolk nursery and an elderly people's home have teamed up to bring younger and older generations together to interact, in the same spirit as a recent popular Channel 4 series.
Children from the East Dereham Day Nursery have been visiting the residents at Sanford House Care Home to bring younger and older generations together. Picture: Supplied by Sarah Hudson - Credit: Archant
Children from the East Dereham Day Nursery have been visiting the residents at Sanford House Care Home, also in Dereham, since the spring of this year and make a trip to the home once every six weeks.
A recent Channel 4 series 'Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds' highlighted the benefits of bringing the younger and older generations together to interact, which includes improvements in social skills and better health and wellbeing in the elderly.
Sarah Hudson of East Dereham Day Nursery said: 'Collectively we feel that breaking down the gap between generations and learning from our older generation is a vital part of being within a community and installing positive morals and values for the children.
'For both the East Dereham Day Nursery and Sanford House it demonstrates to us how wonderful life can be if we take care of our future generations and offer time to show appreciation and interest in the our older generations.'
Children from the East Dereham Day Nursery have been visiting the residents at Sanford House Care Home to bring younger and older generations together. Picture: Supplied by Sarah Hudson - Credit: Archant
Activities when the groups meet up include playing games with a soft ball to promote hand and eye coordination, feeding the pets and drawing pictures for Sanford House residents to keep.
The sessions also involve enjoying snacks and chatting about what they enjoy doing.
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Joan Auton, manger at Sanford House said: 'All residents are smiling when the children arrive. They are pleased to have the children here.
'Having the children from the East Dereham Day Nursery visit brings life into their home and to their hearts.'
A number of tests were run in the Channel 4 series which showed how the children involved had developed greater resilience and empathy as well as increased vocabulary.
The elderly also became more active both physically and cognitively, with East Dereham Day Nursery and Sanford House also hoping that these results will replicate among their children and residents.
