Yakamia Primary School kindergarten students bring smiles to the faces of Hawthorn House clients

Unlikely friendships have blossomed between Albany kindergarten students and dementia care clients in a program that is reaping rewards across generations.

Alzheimer WA’s Hawthorn House provides a home away from home for people living with dementia, offering respite, support and activities for clients and their families.

The centre and the local primary school have partnered to run monthly visits for the clients and four-year-old students.

Yakamia PS deputy principal Kylee Weadey said the program had been running successfully for six months and would continue in the new school year.

They celebrated the end of 2021 with a Christmas party.

“The focus was about building positive relationships within our community,” she said.

“We were also focused on building the kids’ social skills, so that was a good way for them to interact with other people, not just children.

“To build conversation, to engage in play situations, taking turns, just building their general social and language skills.”

Kindergarten teacher Linda James has been planning activities, such as arts and crafts, puzzles and reading stories, to give the dementia clients a chance to teach the students.

One of the activities involved the students painting portraits of the Hawthorn House buddies, which was then turned into a book and gifted to the centre.

“The kids have been partnered up with the same residents each time, so they have built a bit of a relationship, which is great,” Ms Weadley said.

“The kids are remembering the adult’s names and by our Christmas event at the end of the year, some of the adults were actually starting to remember the kids’ names too.

“Those relationships and interactions have grown in that short amount of time that we’ve had the partnership with Hawthorn House.”

Hawthorn House respite co-ordinator Linda Taylor said the program provided a valuable opportunity for intergenerational connection.

“Some of our clients’ memory isn’t brilliant; from month to month they might not recall the visit until they look at the photographs and their faces just light up,” she said.

“The activities they have are very simplistic and it’s giving our clients the ability to show the children how to do it.

“Just having that social intergenerational interaction is really important.”