My mom is sliding along the dementia scale, and she is not adjusting well to a new flat screen tv in her assisted living. The remote has too many buttons. When I search online, the remotes advertised for seniors are bigger sized remotes with larger buttons, maybe lighted buttons, but still TOO MANY BUTTONS !!
I found something called the slicker clicker (slickerclicker.com) but it is $60.00. And only has one review that says it is a piece of junk.
My mom is not able to channel surf. She only wants to watch Andy Griffith show, nightly local news, and college basketball games. (I grew up in Dean Smith UNC country, so basketball rules in our family!)
She is lonely and bored, and I think having some tv during her day would help to pass the hours. Surely someone out there has some positive suggestions for me?
https://www.flipperremote.com/ $29.99. Do a search for “Big Button Remote” and there are many other options. Of course you will have to program it. Good luck.
On many systems - TVs, remotes, cable boxes - you can set up favorites and can delete any station you don't want. You could reduce the number of stations and get a simpler remote so it cycles through just those.
You could look into a Tivo - either through the cable company or to buy - and run it with the Tivo app from your phone and/or computer. You could program it. But you'd still need to simplify choices by setting up those channels as favorites or something like that.
I think mom needs a DVR that you’ve programmed to record her fave shows. then she only has to click on recorded programs button (you can put a sparkly colored nail polish on that button) and then she can watch her fave recorded shows.
No advice, but I can’t figure out our remote either. Why the heck is everything so complicated? My mother is still having trouble with the fact that the new washers and dryers need two buttons to turn them on.
Thanks @nottelling . I went to CT for a niece’s wedding in October, and this beautiful spot was part of the landscape at the wedding reception venue. This trip gave me the “bucket list” opportunity to view the fall leaves in New England, and I was not disappointed.
No advice unfortunately but my kitchen TV is MY TV with nobody allowed to mess with it. One remote–on/off, channel, volume. Our other TV’s seem to take at least 3 different remotes to get anything you want to watch. Frustrating. I watch a lot on my computer.
My 94 year old grandmother has trouble using her remote too. She has macular degeneration and has very poor eyesight. One thing that seems to throw her off using her remote is the lag time between pushing buttons and tv actually changing channels…it complicates things for her selecting channels, especially combined with her poor eyesight. She tends to leave on the one channel that has her favorite soap…she probably listened to same soap opera on radio back before TV was invented!
The best medicine for your mom’s loneliness would be to do whatever possible to have some family members visit more with her if at all possible.
Tape. Take electrical tape - cut thin strips - and run tape around the remote - covering all of the unnecessary buttons. Just leave uncovered the on/off button, volume up/down and channel up/down.
In addition to covering the buttons, it is possible to cut or slice off the unnecessary silicone buttons and then tape over them, preventing any ‘accidental’ pressing of them. Worked like a charm
I have been known to call my husband when he’s at a conference to ask how the tv works. But mostly I just do Amazon streaming on the computer because that I can figure out!
Agree with the advice so far. Also, usually the TV remotes (the TV brand not the cable brand) have fewer buttons, and to be honest, leaving on the cable box and then just turning the TV on and off should work fine.
You can avoid permanently damaging the remote by opening up the cover (if you can, some have screws and some have slots to put a key in to pop it open) and very carefully opening by lifting the top off. You then could use something (thin stiff plastic?) to cover all the buttons but the ones she will use).
And if you could get the TV just to go on and off, how about “the Clapper”?
The Flipper remote looks great - I’m thinking of something like that for my dad (no dementia, just annoyed with remotes).
My mom also uses the one channel, same volume method so she only has to turn the tv on or off. To be honest, she usually leaves her tv on low, 24/7. Once a week she asks me to fix it because she has touched the wrong buttons. She doesn’t use a remote. She only uses the buttons on the tv.