BABY AND TODDLER GROUPS
Grandparents at groups
Melanie Pilcher, quality and standards manager at the Alliance, explains why free and natural resources offer greater sensory play experiences for children
Alison works as an early years development manager at the Alliance, supporting families and educators.
Many grandparents are in a unique position to be able to play a positive part in their grandchildren’s lives with everyone benefitting from the extra joy, love and time they can share.
It’s estimated that there are around 14 million grandparents in the UK. In the last few years, there’s been a significant jump in the number of grandparents providing childcare each week for their family – with some estimates suggesting 60% of grandparents are now regularly involved. Families are increasingly turning to older relatives for support with little ones to help to reduce costs and meet the demands of returning to work.
With these figures in mind, it’s highly likely that – at some point either now or in the future – you’ll have grandparents attending your baby and toddler group. Each generation can benefit from this arrangement, as can both the baby and toddler group itself and the local community surrounding it.
Benefits for children
Many children come from families fragmented by distance or the breakdown of relationships, so seeing either their own or other grandparents in the safe, welcoming environment of the group can help to build empathy, develop communication skills, provide opportunities for learning, and reduce ageism.
It’s important for younger generations to see older people as positive role models who have significant, valuable contributions to make to children’s lives.
Benefits for grandparents
Attending a group with their grandchildren provides opportunities for social interaction. Loneliness and isolation are serious issues for many older people; a baby and toddler group offers an environment to meet and connect with others, helping to form new friendships and provide emotional support.
At baby and toddler groups, there’s also the chance to boost activity levels for all attendees via interactive play, as well as singing and dancing opportunities at a pace each individual is comfortable with. As group leaders, however, you need to bear in mind that some grandparents will potentially need additional support – such as chairs rather than floor-based seating areas or rails to aid mobility.
There’s also the opportunity to share skills or learn new ones. One group shared with us that two grandads had been enthralled by making and playing with playdough alongside their grandchildren, revealing the following week that they’d made it again at home trying out different recipes. Their delight at doing so was clearly obvious and infectious.
Benefits for the group and the community
An increasing number of groups are relying on grandparents to step forward and volunteer to help to run weekly sessions. As a result, these grandparents are bringing both their experience and skills while ensuring the continuation of the group - benefitting the local community.
This can have both social and economic advantages: the raising of awareness of age-related issues, building trust between generations, creating better services, and strengthening communities. These intergenerational relationships benefit everyone’s collective future.
As you can see, there are benefits all round to grandparents attending baby and toddler groups, but first and foremost is the time spent together between little ones and family. It helps to build secure bonds that can last a lifetime between grandparents and their grandchildren, while also teaching them to appreciate the spectrum of humans.
What a fun thing to do each week with grandma and/or grandad, and what a great way for both generations to have a rich, engaging and meaningful experience together.
The Alliance Baby and Toddler Toolkit helps group leaders reflect on the service they offer to families and tailor their group for the families with whom they interact.
If you would like to know more, please visit: bit.ly/BabyToddlerToolkitU5.
Neil Leitch, the CEO of the Early Years Alliance, commented:
“Interacting with older people provides children with unique learning opportunities; that could mean the chance to take on the responsibility of ‘looking after’ an older person or to learn from someone who has experienced and overcome challenges. We should always be looking for opportunities to learn through play – experience and sharing stories should be prized, however they come about – but there’s something particularly worth cherishing when it comes to two generations at different stages of life.”
Under 5 magazine
The magazine of the Early Years Alliance