Preschoolers' visits to elderly bridge generation gap and create positive relationships

Children from BestStart Stratford visiting residents at a local rest home.

Every week, a group of youngsters walk from their Early Childhood Centre, BestStart Stratford, to visit one of the nearby rest homes.

The children, aged between 2 and 4, bring books to read and plenty of energy as they visit some of the older generation in their town.

Teacher Boedy Dibble says the idea behind the visits is to give the children the chance to connect with other people in their community.

"They learn a lot from the visits, but they also give a lot too."

Boedy says the residents at the rest homes enjoy the visits as well, and love listening to the children talk about what they have been doing at BestStart as well as listening to some songs from the children.

"I like singing all the songs when we visit. We sing our favourites."

Nayana Morgan, 4, says she also likes the walk to the rest homes.

"We stop at the playground sometimes."

Boedy says this is all part of the learning for the children.

"It's not just the visit we do, but it is also about showing the children their local community, identifying places we play, places we visit. We stop off at places and explore."

Jezreel Marshall, 3, says the exploring is lots of fun.

"I like going for walks, we run through the primary school and we also take our books with us to share with the people we are visiting."

The books are the children's learning stories. They are types of scrapbooks kept by the staff for each individual child, showing what they have been doing and learning.

Boedy says the books are a great way to start the children talking to the residents about themselves.

"It is nice to listen and hear them explain what we have all been doing. It helps the children remember things and it helps the residents understand what we have been doing."

Mason Robinson, 3, says an added perk of the visits is that the residents often give them treats.

"Chocolate is my favourite! But I like talking to the people too and singing our songs. We sing the alphabet song sometimes."