A plan to teach my dad to use smartphones - HELP NEEDED!
My dad is 59 years old and is still using a traditional phone without any internet service. He is a slow adapter to new technology and in this case, very very slow. We have tried to convince him many times of trying and he rejected every single time.
A few weeks earlier, he went on a trip with his schoolmates back in the days and saw everyone was using smart phones. They wanted to invite him to join a Whatsapp group but discovered that he didn’t know what Whatsapp was. After the trip, he finally agreed to learn how to use a smartphone. (Peer pressure is hell of a good thing to change my Dad’s mind for trying new things)
Now we bought him a LG K10 series and are thinking about what should we teach him to learn first:
How to unlock a phone
How to call and to pick up one
WhatsApp
Type Chinese with the writing pad
Take photos
Newspaper apps
Set alarm
Music apps
Would the above be too difficult or too unorganised? Any recommendations on teaching my Dad how to use a smartphone? Thanks for your help in advance.
If possible, you should return that phone and start him off with either a Samsung on easy mode or an older iphone. Learning curve is too steep on Android if it isn't slowly introduced. Used this technique with my 70yr old mother in law.
I don't disagree with your order. Guide what you teach by what you dad needs to do and build round that. Think of the real-world tasks that he needs to do and teach those.. so, making a call and reading / responding on Whatsapp to his friends are a great place to start. Reinforce what you teach with constant repetition and introduce new things slowly.
If he has grandkids, then it's good to task them with showing him things.
teach him to organise his contacts and to make phone calls, sms and emails -then use his camera
Hmm... from experience I know he's mostly afraid of screwing up in front of you. Parents rather not disrupt the "magic". While growing up our kids look up to us. WE were the ones to go to for help...help. Help with tying you shoes, homework, and so on.
I recommend that first, you show him a how-to video from the series in the link below. It's specifically for LG K10 phones. They teach EACH STEP in SUPER SHORT, EASY to follow VISUAL instructions. Pretty cool!! Hope it's useful to you:
After your dad watches and TRIES each lesson ON HIS OWN, he'll be ready and I'm sure proud to show off his newly acquired skills to you.
Extra Tip: Take him to dinner after "graduation" as an added bonus for being a good "student". Everyone loves a little extra attention once in a while; parents are no exception.
🙂🙂🙂
Us older guys need help when it comes to mobiles