Lingo Flamingo: breaking stigma around dementia, older age and learning

"Lingo Flamingo run language learning projects in care homes and day centres to enhance the wellbeing of marginalised adults in care."

Lingo Flamingo’s mission is to promote wellbeing, improve health and enable life long development by making language learning accessible to older adults. Teaching languages to older adults may sound surprising, but Rosi, their Development and Learning Manager shared “our experience shows that learning a language is good for the brain, can help protect against dementia – and is good for banter too.” It gives their students a much needed opportunity to socialise and have fun all while acting as a form of brain training.

They believe it is never too late to learn, and they run language learning projects in care homes and day centres to enhance the wellbeing of marginalised adults in care. This is a way to tackle both social isolation and loneliness in their community, not only giving people an opportunity to come together and experience an inclusive, meaningful activity but, as languages are a key method of communication and socialisation, their classes also offer a powerful tool to bring communities, families and care workers together and to allow people to get to know each other.

Their classes put participant’s wellbeing first by facilitating confidence building, creating connections between learners, stimulating the mind and offering something new and exciting. Rosi reflects, “this has been shown to improve the participants’ decision making and multitasking skills, heightens their ability to concentrate and communicate, meaning language learning is an activity unlike anything else on offer.”

Although they already receive requests from statutory sector care establishments, they are keen to strengthen these relationships to increase their reach and deepen their impact within local communities. By building ongoing partnerships with care home teams and wider health and social care networks, they can better understand needs, coordinate delivery more effectively and create consistent opportunities for older adults to take part. Over time, this will help embed language learning as a valued wellbeing activity, connecting residents, staff, families and communities.

Another key challenge is securing consistent funding for activities, as the resources needed to deliver sessions are not always available. It can make it difficult to plan ahead and respond quickly to requests from care organisations. This uncertainty also limits the ability to scale programs or commit to regular timetables that participants can rely on, even though continuity is crucial for building confidence, relationships and lasting wellbeing benefits.

Furthermore, Rosi shares that “there is still stigma around what older people can and cannot do, especially if they are living with a dementia diagnosis. The idea of learning a language is also seen as something elite and overly complex as it is often associated with achieving fluency. However, Lingo’s concept is not about achieving fluency, it is about harnessing the power of languages for the brain and wellbeing that can be enjoyed throughout our classes.”

Through working with older adults in care, they have learned to not underestimate people’s ability to enjoy and benefit from an educational experience despite the challenges they may face. Rosi emphasised, “there is more to communication and learning than meets the eye, and a lot of ability to be harnessed later in life.” Going forward, they would love to reach more people and break the stigma around dementia, older age and learning.

Read more about the work of Lingo Flamingo here.

You can read all Connected Communities case studies here: https://www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/blog/case_studies/?projects=connected-communities.