How Can I Teach My Senior How to Use a Smartphone

Our senior living community in Phoenix, AZ offers a wide variety of activities that residents can participate in to broaden their horizons, as well as continue to learn new living techniques as they enter their golden years. However, one activity you can expect not to see held at an assisted living facility is a class that teaches residents how to use a Smartphone. Many seniors fear Smartphones because they believe the devices are too complicated to learn. They also tend to turn the learning part of the brain off because they do not understand how helpful a Smartphone can be in addressing daily living responsibilities.

If you have a loved one residing at a senior housing community in Phoenix, you might be asking yourself, “How can I teach my senior how to use a Smartphone?” Older adults learn differently than younger adults and adolescents. The key is to adjust your teaching style by starting with building patience during the learning process. You have to demonstrate each task, not just verbally describe it. Encourage your senior loved one to repeat each task until the task is mastered, which can be easy to do if you break down tasks into smaller steps. 

Here are the most important Smartphone tasks to help your senior loved one become more self-sufficient:

Operating a Smartphone

Smartphones come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, but one thing remains the same regardless of the type of Smartphone: Your senior loved one needs to know how to operate it. You should explain how to turn the device on and off, as well as how to adjust the volume for delivering and receiving audio messages. Another important operating task to learn involves knowing how to charge a Smartphone and how often your loved one needs to charge it for the phone to maximize its performance. Learning how to navigate a Smartphone requires your senior loved one to understand the icons and how to set up different features to get the most out of the new device.

Managing Contacts

One of the most helpful Smartphone features that seniors benefit from is using contacts. Instead of trying to remember several phone numbers and other types of information, organizing and managing the contact features helps your loved one gain access to the phone numbers of friends and family members by simply clicking one name listed on the contacts page. You should teach your senior loved one how to add contacts, as well as manage the information by creating default phone numbers and email addresses. In addition, teach your loved one how to set up emergency contact information, such as the phone numbers of important healthcare-related businesses.

Sending Emails and Text Messages

One of the most popular features of Smartphones is the ability for users to communicate without having to hold a verbal conversation. Your loved one needs to know how to send emails and text messages to get the most out of their new devices. Make sure you do not assume your senior loved one knows the difference between emails and text messages. Explain the differences in the purpose of each type of written communication, and then show your loved one how to send and retrieve emails and text messages. For emails, help your senior loved one sign up for an account with a popular service such as Google or Yahoo. When it comes to text messages, education becomes much more thorough, as you want to demonstrate how to use a texting app and how to start a text conversation.

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