The Best Intergenerational Activities for Seniors: How Engaging With Younger Generations Can Bring Meaning to a Senior’s Life

Interacting with babies, toddlers, and young children in school can be a calming experience for seniors. The curiosity and youthful energy of these age groups can also bring much-needed laughter and joy. Plus, activities with younger children may comfort seniors who don’t have grandchildren or don’t get to see them as often as they’d like to.

Examples of activities with younger children include:

• Holding and interacting with babies
• Visiting a class or daycare for story time
• Helping a child with an arts and crafts project
• Volunteering at local events for children

“Engaging with a child six years and younger helps seniors feel like they’re still able to give back, and that’s very fulfilling and rewarding,” says Jenna Hauss, the CEO of ONEgeneration, which offers day programs for both children and older adults.

Intergenerational mentorships match seniors age 55+ with children to foster relationships. Whether it’s based on a common interest or meaningful conversation, mentorship can benefit everyone involved. The goal is for seniors to experience social enrichment while allowing children to have an adult they can look up to.

Mentorship programs such as Senior Adults for Greater Education (S.A.G.E.) work with school districts to pair seniors with students. Senior volunteers interact with children during the school day, when they encourage learning and impart wisdom.

AmeriCorps also has a mentorship program, called the Foster Grandparent Program. Seniors who sign up can volunteer in different ways, from mentoring a teenager to regularly tutoring a student who needs extra support.

Aside from giving seniors something to look forward to regularly, mentorship benefits for seniors include:^[01]

• Increased optimism
• Better scores on memory tests
• Increased activity and mobility

Plus, mentorships help resolve the pitfalls that can occur when seniors only interact with other seniors.

“When people only live with other people their age, the conversation shifts to three P’s: pain, pills, and passing. What hurts, what medication you’re on, and who died. You can’t have that conversation when you’re talking with a 17-year-old. It really brings out other interests that the older adult may have or something they’ve forgotten about that they’ve always wanted to nurture,” adds Donna Butts, the executive director at Generations United, a nonprofit organization dedicated to intergenerational programs.

Butts also shares how her organization helped a senior who was very depressed after a move to a senior living community. Through an intergenerational program, the senior woman became a reading tutor for preschoolers, and she found a new sense of purpose.

“She told us later, ‘You gave me back my life,’” said Butts.

Mentorships can also benefit caregivers. These programs can provide them with a rest from their caregiving duties while their senior visits with a young friend. These programs also provide something exciting a caregiver can talk about with their senior loved one. The change in routine can be a respite for caregivers and help them connect to their senior in new ways.

Mentorship benefits for children

Children who participate in a regular intergenerational program look forward to these events just as much as their senior counterparts. Butts recalls children who never miss school on the days when seniors visit — an intergenerational program can provide meaning and purpose to students who might be wanting for either. Children also gain a great sense of empathy through these programs.

“When [children are] exposed to older adults with disabilities at a very early age, it teaches them to look at somebody who’s in a wheelchair or walker and not think any differently,” says Hauss.

A desire for this empathy and a positive experience can drive parents to seek out volunteer opportunities for their children. Brandy Sweeney-Evrard, the life enrichment coordinator at Astor Place senior living community in Oregon, started an intergenerational program by reaching out to her child’s preschool. “I want my kids to be able to come to places like this. I don’t want them to be afraid of older people,” Sweeney-Evrard says.

Some senior living communities may have intergenerational programming opportunities built right into their community. Shared sites, or neighboring senior living communities and child daycares, make organizing intergenerational programs easy. Staff at senior living communities may need on-site child care or take their children to a child care center nearby. Having these opportunities nearby opens a world of possibilities when it comes to planning intergenerational activities.

Hauss’s organization, ONEgeneration, offers a childcare and preschool program for children and an adult day care program for seniors all on one site in Van Nuys, California. Their robust senior center incorporates shared site components as well, bringing together local high school students with active seniors.

Hauss explains that their senior center provides an eight-week program called Sages and Seekers to connect older adults with high-schoolers. Many of the older adults who participate in Sages and Seekers stay in touch with the students long after the program ends, inquiring about college and career updates.

At ONEgeneration, adults who have a cognitive impairment — such as Down syndrome, Parkinson’s, brain injury, dementia, or stroke recovery challenges — thrive in the on-site intergenerational program. Pairing these adults with young children allows them to tap into their strengths and renew their sense of purpose.

Let our care assessment guide you

Virtual or distanced intergenerational activities help seniors access these experiences from afar. These activities may be easier to schedule, and preventing the spread of illness is still a priority for many senior living communities.

Distanced intergenerational activities still affect the atmosphere in the community. For instance, virtual story times via Zoom keep seniors connected to preschoolers, and sometimes the children even send their senior cards. In addition to reading, communities may send craft supplies to seniors and youth and set up Zoom sessions to complete the project. Playing games together such as bingo or I Spy are also classic favorites.

Zoom may not work for everyone, however. ONEgeneration offers drive-up events, distanced outdoor activities in nice weather, care package delivery, and even a pen pal program for seniors and high school students. In either case, some senior living communities notice an air of excitement that comes along with distanced intergenerational programming.

“If you tell the seniors we’re going to have the kids on the TV, [and] we’re going to interact with them, people come out that I wouldn’t expect to come out. Then they’re watching all these little kids and they’re laughing, and it’s just a chance to be playful and goofy,” Sweeney-Evrard says.

If you’re looking into a senior living community that offers intergenerational activities for seniors and youth, pay attention to how frequently the community offers these activities and what types of activities are available. Having children come to perform or participate in one activity doesn’t have the same effect and benefits that regular, long-term interactions provide.

Effective programs build relationships, and as Butts says, “Relationships take time.” Instead, look for communities where seniors get the opportunity to work with the same group of children on a regular basis, doing activities that allow both age groups to participate.

Thoughtfulness is key

Considerate preparation and planning make all the difference in the success of intergenerational activities. Senior living community staff and the organizations they partner with need to consider the capabilities and backgrounds of everyone who’s involved — both the children and the seniors — and adjust planned activities accordingly.

Prepared children

While children who see seniors regularly have an advantage in intergenerational interactions, children who don’t may become frightened when seeing a senior in a wheelchair or someone who is sick. This often leads to seniors and children both having a negative experience. Children should be prepared about what they may see ahead of the event and be comfortable interacting with seniors.

Capability-appropriate activities

Not all activities are suitable for seniors. Butts recounted a volunteer’s unfortunate experience where a senior was working on a craft with children, and the teacher coordinating the activity asked the senior volunteer to tie a child’s ribbon.

“The teacher didn’t even look at the older adult to realize her hands were so arthritic she couldn’t tie the ribbon. So she never went back to volunteer,” Butts says.

In order to have a successful activity, the coordinator should choose something that can easily be modified or is designed to suit both groups. At ONEgeneration, children and seniors play seated volleyball with a balloon or participate in appropriate arts and crafts. An intergenerational program coordinator sets up a work station for the senior and the child, giving them a choice to work next to each other or to collaborate on a project where the senior steps up and guides the child in the activity.

Read more:The Benefits of Art Therapy in Senior Living

Seniors with dementia or Alzheimer’s

Since intergenerational programs emphasize what both age groups can bring to each other, you might question whether a senior with memory loss can participate. Seniors with memory loss work best with younger children or babies, and they have a lot to offer.

At ONEgeneration, Hauss explains that seniors can feed a bottle to a younger infant, read them a book, or even just hold a baby — this can reduce agitation in someone with memory loss while settling the infant at the same time. These interactions and other memory care activities enrich the lives of both the senior and the child.

Additional resources

If your senior loved one doesn’t have access to a program within their community, you as a caregiver may be able to help them find ways to participate. Generations United offers a database that allows you to search for intergenerational programs in your area.

In-person activities are also easy to organize with close family members and friends. Plan a nature walk or cooking activities between your senior and younger family members. If in-person activities are not an option, connecting with grandchildren or young relatives over technology still offers benefits for both groups.

Talk with a Senior Living Advisor

Intergenerational programs offer many benefits, but it’s up to your senior loved one whether they want to participate. Some seniors gravitate toward working with youth, while others prefer working with high schoolers. Choosing not to participate could mean that your loved one hasn’t found the right fit, though some seniors may just not enjoy activities with children.

Respecting your senior loved one’s choice should always be a priority. If working with children isn’t a good fit, look for a senior living community with robust programming and other ways to volunteer in the greater community.

Butts explains that framing intergenerational opportunities in a way that shows seniors what they have to contribute to youth — whether it’s tutoring, mentoring, or even helping a young mother — can increase the chance that they’ll want to participate in such programs.

“Put it in terms of what they are offering and the strengths that they have, because intergenerational programs are strength-based. Everybody has something to give.”

This article was optimized by A Place for Mom copywriter Kayla Van Erdewyk.