Sometimes it can be difficult to encourage people to join in with your activities. This can be for a variety of reasons; They may be shy, they be thinking that they don't want their days organised for them or they may just like to spend time quietly by themselves. These feelings could be just how they felt when you asked them to join you, they may stem from having just moved into communal living or they may feel unwell or be recovering from a stressful event. (Moving home can be stressful for anyone, doubly so if it is not really through choice, or they are moving from their family home.)
Here are 3 tips to help get them involved...
1. Take time to get to know who they are; what makes them tick? who is important to them? what are their interests? how busy is their day?
Let them get to know you, and to appreciate you as a person who is genuinely interested in them.
2. Talk to them about what you have planned for the day.
Start conversations with points about what you are going to be doing next.
"I'm going to the shop later... I need to get some more wool for the knitting club... do you knit?"
"What colours do you think I should get?... should I get some Christmassy colours?"
"Would you like to come to the shop with me?... I hate going on my own."
3. Use physical evidence to show them what you did earlier.
Try to link to them with conversation starters such as...
"Maggie made this card..."
"Have you heard Sam singing? I've got a video of him from the Karaoke session yesterday..."
"I've got some photos to put into the activity album... look at this lot....which ones do you think I should include?"