What happened when two generations came together to exercise
Last autumn we played a session of our popular Body Boosting Bingo strength and balance exercise game with older residents of a Fife care home and nursery school children to test its intergenerational appeal. Doug Anthoney shares the story, and its results.
Since it was first launched in 2018, we’ve had the idea that Body Boosting Bingo could work well as an intergenerational resource, particularly with early years children playing alongside older people. This is because the game includes simple moves along to a fun music score, is very visual and easy to follow, and offers opportunities for young players to become familiar with numbers between one and thirty.
The opportunity to test our thinking arose in discussion with Generations Working Together, Scotland’s centre of excellence for intergenerational practice. Together we identified an ideal location – the innovative Methilhaven in Fife, where a residential care home and nursery work together on a shared campus. When the Methilhaven staff said yes, our test was good to go.
On a dreary November day, I met with Lorraine George from Generations Working Together, and later life physical activity expert Dr Simone Tomaz from the University of Stirling at Methilhaven. We played Body Boosting Bingo with three residents of Methilhaven care home resident and three children attending the nursery, and shared lots of laughs.
Methilhaven early years staff described it as 'an amazing experience' and saw potential for more Body Boosting Bingo involving nursery children.
Lorraine said:
“Having the children present added another dimension to the activity. Not only were the older adults playing for their own sake, but they also had a secondary role as 'teacher', encouraging the children to join-in, and explaining to them what to do. The children also had a role as 'coaches', encouraging the older people to raise their arms higher or move their legs more. You could tell this made it really enjoyable for everyone, including the staff.”
On reflection, we wondered whether the intergenerational experience could be enhanced with additions such as larger and more pictorial printed resources?
We’d love to explore opportunities to test such enhancements with projects that bring early years children and older people together (or are planning to) so please do get in touch.
