3 Tips For Teaching The Elderly To Use New Technology

With so many people planning on spending the upcoming holidays away from their families, be it because you’re too nervous about traveling or you have grandparents residing in assisted living facilities, there’s never been a better time to ensure that those you care about know how to get in contact with you via technology. And while many younger generations have an easy time with those, your parents or grandparents may be very intimidated with learning how to use newer forms of technology.

To help you learn how you can help ease these fears and bridge any knowledge gaps they may be experiencing, here are three tips for teaching the elderly to use new technology. 

Image Source: Pexels

Know Their Goals

Before you start throwing a bunch of jargon or information at your elderly loved one, the best thing to uncover is what their goals are for using new technology in the first place. This will help you know where to focus your attention so that you can teach them the exact tasks that they want to learn and feel will be more beneficial to them. 

According to AgingInPlace.com, some of the most common reasons for the elderly wanting to use technology is to use their email, stay in touch with their loved ones, shop online, write letters, browse and share photos, or enjoy music or videos. Once you know which of these goals is the most desirable, you’ll be better able to cater your teaching to those goals. 

Get The Environment Right

When you sit down to teach an elderly person how to use technology, it’s vital that you have the right environment for them to learn. This might be something you don’t easily think of if your learning style or capabilities are different from theirs.

In the ideal environment, Bobbi Kelley, a contributor to SeniorsFlourish.com, advises that you have proper lighting, a quiet room, and devices that have the ability to enlarge the font and increase the volume. These things will make it much easier to see and hear what’s going on on their screen.

Encourage Note Taking

Using technology can be very complicated and confusing for many elderly people. Knowing this, you may want to encourage them to take notes while you explain things and go through the processes that they’ll want to remember.

ParentGiving.com shares that if you take things slow and allow the elderly person the time they need to understand, process, and write down each step that they should take, they will be able to find much more success with their use of technology.

If you’re going to be teaching an elderly person how to use a new piece of technology, consider using the tips mentioned above as you prepare to give them this new and exciting educatio