The Joy of Sharing

What 2-year-old can resist being the center of attention in a roomful of older adults? And what senior can resist rocking an infant, playing peekaboo with a toddler or making chocolate pudding with a preschooler?

One innovative day-care program in the San Fernando Valley is attempting to find out, through an ongoing program that brings together preschoolers and elderly men and women.

Participants in JOY, the Joining Older & Younger Program, range in age from 6 weeks to 103 years. They interact in song, dance, arts and crafts and other activities at a shared center on Victory Boulevard, which consists of separate buildings for each age group that are connected by a patio.

Intellectual stimulation, physical activity and emotional connections are at the center of the program that is the subject of a study by human development researchers in Virginia.

Although there have been some efforts to mix generations--such as retirement communities near college campuses and elder hostels that bring retirees to universities for a week or two of study--structured programs between seniors and children are still in their infancy, experts say.

“Seniors, especially those with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, are often shoved aside and not seen as valuable in our society, but here they get unconditional love from the children,” said Marilyn Green Fried, executive director of the Organization for the Needs of the Elderly. The Van Nuys-based nonprofit group, which provides services to the senior population of the Valley and their families, oversees the JOY program.

“The children learn to accept people as they are,” she said. “People don’t need to be perfect to be valued, and that’s a beautiful lesson to learn.”

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At the center, seniors and children get together several times a day for activities in one building or the other. One recent morning, things were pretty low-key in a senior exercise class, until a preschool class came in for a Halloween costume parade.

“Hi, neighbors!” the children called out as they showed off their costumes.

The room buzzed with chatter, laughter, handshakes and hugs as Batman, Snow White, a pirate, fairy princess and prom queen worked the crowd.

“They are smart. They are beautiful. I love them all,” said George Nassaney, 82, of Woodland Hills, shouting above a James Brown tune on the boombox.

In a preschool classroom, seniors and toddlers tossed beanbags back and forth. They all laughed, cooed and clapped.

A 93-year-old Alzheimer’s patient who used to teach in a one-room schoolhouse believes she comes to the center every day to teach the children, said Kelly Bruno, director of the intergenerational center.

The woman is not alone, she said. About 90% of the seniors suffer from memory impairment.

“Some of them think they are coming here to teach school, to care for the kids, for a club meeting or for therapy. We don’t care why they think they are here, we are just glad they are here,” Bruno said.

Like residential nursing homes, the center offers arts and crafts and exercise classes. Nurses dispense medication. Speech, occupational and physical therapists help stroke victims and others to get back on their feet. But the JOY program’s 102 seniors interact with preschoolers and then go home at the end of the day.

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In another building at the center, the JOY program’s 78 preschoolers make sponge paintings or listen to stories during circle time. The exception is that they have elderly “neighbors” who serve their lunch and calm them at nap time.

“This is good for the seniors. It gives them something to do other than sitting and feeling sorry for themselves. You can see them perk up when the kids come,” said Gene Goodwein, a volunteer.

“Some of the kids are afraid, at first, to go up to a senior in a wheelchair,” Goodwein said, “but then they warm up.”

The JOY program was launched in 1993 with a $1-million grant from the Mark Taper Foundation. Nearly two-thirds of the older adults enrolled receive some sort of financial aid to cover program fees.

JOY’s success comes as no surprise to Shannon Jarrott, assistant professor of human development at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., who is studying the effect of the program on older participants and their families.

“So far, what we have found is that there is a higher level of energy among those who did some activity with the child compared to those who did not,” Jarrott said.

The children give the seniors a sense of purpose and joy and stimulate positive memories of their own childhoods, children or grandchildren, she added.

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Jarrott plans to make the research--expected to be completed early next year--available to other social service agencies considering such programs.

“We have a huge untapped resource that could fill the gaps where staffing has been cut in educational and recreational programs,” she said. “We can look to adults to meet the needs of children, and to children to meet the needs of adults.”