Young and old bond over dialect lessons at senior daycare centre

Programme brings sense of purpose to seniors, helps kids develop social skills

- Leow Wen Xuan

Twice a month, pre-schoolers from My First Skool at Braddell Heights Community Hub visit seniors at the senior day care centre two minutes away to learn dialects such as Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese.

Seniors teach the Kindergarten 2 children simple greetings and how to count in dialect.

The seniors smile even as bubbly kids fumble at attempts to learn some Hokkien phrases.

The dialect lessons, which started in 2023, are part of the Intergenerational Programme by NTUC Health and NTUC First Campus, which run eldercare and childcare centres respectively.

Apart from dialect sessions, preschool children and seniors make arts and crafts and hold festive and birthday celebrations together regularly.

When the programme started in 2014, activities were held on an adhoc basis. The Intergenerational Programme was incorporated into the curriculum at NTUC's My First Skool pre-schools as well as regular programming for seniors at NTUC Health's elderly care facilities in 2017.

The goal of the programme is to empower seniors with a greater sense of purpose in sharing their knowledge and culture through activities while inculcating in preschoolers values of empathy, compassion and respect for seniors, said Ms Chan Su Yee, chief executive of NTUC Health and NTUC First Campus.

"Over the years, we have witnessed improvements in seniors through the Intergenerational Programme. For instance, seniors with conditions such as dementia and aphasia showed improvement in social interaction and engagement during the sessions.

"We were surprised that a senior who was usually very quiet came to life when he was asked to tell a story to the pre-schoolers." Aphasia is a disorder that limits a person's ability to speak or understand others.