how to help a senior adjust?

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My mother(79 years old) was just sent an iPad mini from my uncle. She didn't even know what she has-" one of those hand held things" she said- I had her tell me what brand . Very generous gift to a person that has never even sat in front of a PC even though my dad had PC's since the early 90's.
she has no interest in computers- My uncle had sent her an (antiquated) macbook 6 years ago after dad passed away- it could not connect to internet ( my sister is experienced with mac) it was too outdated to upgrade. My uncle wants to be able to do FaceTime email and such with her( he is on west coast she is on the east coast) He is 80 but never stops learning. She has trouble learning the new buttons on her cordless phone- She has fios internet but does not even know her assigned e-mail address to set up an apple account.
Any suggestions? i'm jealous- I have a first gen iPad- I am going over this weekend to see if I can help set it up- she is disabled so taking her to an apple store would be difficult
 

RavingMac

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The only suggestion I can offer is to set it up so that you can use it for her. And sit with her while she does Face Time with her brother. We have similar problems with my mother-in-law. Difficult to help someone who doesnt want to learn.
 

pigoo3

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It is very difficult to get someone to be interested in something that they have no interest in. I have a 70 year-old mother-in-law...and every time I try to help her out with her computer issues (the same issues I've explained over & over & over again)...all I want to do it take myself out into the backyard & put myself out of my misery!!!;)

About all I can suggest is...see if there is something that she is interested in...that she can get involved in using the iPad mini. Once she has at least one thing that she is motivated to do on the mini...she may find other things as well.

But believe me...it can be an uphill battle. 6-12 months from now...that nice new iPad mini may have an inch of dust on it from lack of use...or be on the bottom of 12 inches of junk mail...and she may have completely forgotten she even has it...or where it is.

As an example. Some people like to collect spoons, thimbles, etc. Give me a bunch of spoons to start a collection with...and I will have absolutely no interest in it. This is the same sort of way an older person may react to an iPad mini.

- Nick
 
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The only suggestion I can offer is to set it up so that you can use it for her. And sit with her while she does Face Time with her brother. We have similar problems with my mother-in-law. Difficult to help someone who doesnt want to learn.

I am hoping that with a little exposure, mom will see that it is not going to bite- even a bit less scary than a full computer and learn to have fun with it. She has friends online and can get into chatting with the grandchildren as well as family spread out across the country. I'll see what I can do this saturday. My uncle lies and breathes technology- when he retired at 65, he took classes on computer building and managed a computer store. To him, this is very simple. The old DOS based computer my dad had was very confusing- 5" and 3" floppies. He eventually got windows based computers- Who here remembers dot matrix printers- we has one
 
M

MacInWin

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If she likes to read, and if she needs glasses, you can show her how to read a book on the iPad, and that she has the option to make the font larger to be more comfortable for her. One 90+ gentleman I heard about was so thrilled with that option because he had read all the large print books in his local library and now could read ANY book that was in ebook format. Opened a whole new catalog to him. If she likes reading, you can then expand to other things after she's comfortable with it as a book reader.
 
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I was thinking along those lines. She likes word search puzzles. there are several free apps. she can play her puzzles as much as she wants. It will be a start to introduce her to the world of electronics. I just need her e-mail account to set up her apple account and ID to go on the app store
She is smart enough to pick this up it is just intimidating- I think the old computers were much more difficult to learn- insert disc A, insert small floppy, type command//: etc
 
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The other thing that you can do is get in touch with Apple and see if there are any Seminars in her area. I did that for my mom when she got hers. She went to a couple classes and now uses it with ease - she's 75.

https://edseminars.apple.com/seminars/
 
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there are no apple stores in her area and she has Parkinson's so she does not like to go out much- I spoke to an apple employee today and I can set up her iPad with my apple ID since she does not have a computer or working e-mail for notifications. If she wants to purchase apps( plenty of free ones she will like ) I could get her gift cards- I checked out the retina display of the new iPad- WOW- like 3D! A nice flip stand so she can hold it like a book or lay it up on a table will be nice for her- If she decides she doesn't want it- I'm calling dibs!
 

RavingMac

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there are no apple stores in her area and she has Parkinson's so she does not like to go out much- I spoke to an apple employee today and I can set up her iPad with my apple ID since she does not have a computer or working e-mail for notifications. If she wants to purchase apps( plenty of free ones she will like ) I could get her gift cards- I checked out the retina display of the new iPad- WOW- like 3D! A nice flip stand so she can hold it like a book or lay it up on a table will be nice for her- If she decides she doesn't want it- I'm calling dibs!

Sounds like a plan.
 

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