Allowing the materials to spark interest

An OutoftheBox storyteller Susanne Methven works as a chaplain with people living with dementia in a Senior Living Centre in the US. Here she tells about her experience of using the OutoftheBox materials as a stimulus for the residents to express themselves.

We were outside today. There were many residents around a courtyard, but it was difficult to get a group around the table. I had two residents at the table. Rather than complete telling the story I had planned, I decided to show those we did eventually manage to get around the table all the possibilities from the Box that could be used for storytelling.

And then I waited to see what would spark interest. It turned out it was a small structure I had built in blocks. One resident wanted to know, "Is this the eastern gate?" And then mentioned that people were "too far away from Jesus, precious Jesus." This led to this resident building a complete story of the birth of Jesus with animals and people coming to him. Note: some figures cannot stand, so one leaned on the manger, another on the animal!

When we wondered what else might be added, another resident said, "We need some color." Four residents added different colors to the story.

As we looked at the pictures I had taken of the story, the first resident started singing, "I'll meet you in the morning at the eastern gate," which turned out to be a gospel song another resident knew and sang with her. The first resident had a beatific smile on her face.