Creative Play for All Ages

It’s an interactive game for young and old that produces an array of colors, sounds and movements that goes by a Dutch name. Yes, we’re talking about Tovertafel (“Magic Table”), an innovative game console bringing joy and entertainment to children and adults in more than 10,000 care settings across the world.

“The Wii is ancient now,” says Michele Tarsitano-Amato, creative arts therapy director who introduced Tover to Kendal residents this spring.

The game, which contains a high-quality projector, infrared sensors, a loudspeaker and a processor that projects interactive games onto a table, has been especially developed for people with cognitive challenges and children with developmental disorders.

But given that Kendal is also home to the Early Learning Center, Kendal is just one of a handful of U.S. institutions also using Tover for intergeneration engagement.

“You notice a certain synergy produced from the residents and the children as you see their wonder and curiosity of the machine spark off of one another as they play together,” says Jaysha Jackson, a summer intern from Howard University who is working on an intergen project at Kendal using Tover.

How Tover engages users

During a monthly Zoom meeting of Ohio retirement activity professionals, Michele was introduced to Tover and was immediately captivated by the game’s possibilities for young and old at Kendal.

While Tover can be used solo, the best application is having about four adults around the table.

“I saw one resident who is in a wheelchair and has a short reach and sleeps a lot, raise her head, reach the table and smile,” Michele says.

The Dutch company offers a monthly subscription, which means that new games, with five levels of difficulty, are constantly being added. Many come with props. Michele recently received a box with paintbrushes, drumsticks, and fishing nets so residents can use these items while playing related games.

“We need to get some fly swatters because they really like playing a game in which you kill flies swarming around a picnic table,” she says.

Calming games for the end of the day include moving leaves and kites around the table to the backdrop of soft music.

Add a few children around the table, and play becomes even more imaginative.

“One of the most memorable moments during an intergen session was when playing the marbles game one of the residents started to blow on the table to move the marbles and all of the students started to do the same. I thought that was a very cool moment because the staff were amazed that it worked and that the resident and students had even thought about taking that approach,” Jaysha says.

The game has also helped ease back into intergen programming, which was put on pause because of the pandemic.

“The children were nervous to interact with Grandfriends because they didn’t know them.  This projector has made it fun to interact as they laugh and play together.  Children are not nervous to play with Grandfriends and look forward to it now,” says Jeni Hoover, director of the Early Learning Center.

More than a game

The Kendal staff is just in the early stages of exploring other uses of Tover besides games.

For instance, they can create a personal photo album for a resident, or a photo album of places around Kendal and Oberlin. Before a holiday or field trip, staff can add related content to Tover and create a fun puzzle. They also might add a virtual headset to the game experience.

By the end of the year, Michele envisions that staff will turn on the game in the morning and let residents explore games alone or together throughout the day.

In the past, Molly Kavanaugh frequently wrote about Kendal at Oberlin for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where she was a reporter for 16 years. Now we are happy to have her writing for the Kendal at Oberlin Community.

About Kendal at Oberlin: Kendal is a nonprofit life plan community serving older adults in northeast Ohio. Located about one mile from Oberlin College and Conservatory, and about a 40 minute drive from downtown Cleveland, Kendal offers a vibrant resident-led lifestyle with access to music, art and lifelong learning.