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We started with the Alexa Echo Dot #ad, then me and my dad upgraded to the Alexa Echo Show.
The Alexa Dot doesn’t have a screen display, and now we’re getting audio-visual with my dad’s PD and PDD with the Alexa Show on the daily.
Yes and yes. A 70+, 80+, and 90+ in good shape can use Alexa Echo Show 10 independently, and a family caring for someone with late-stage aging uses Alexa for all kinds of fun and useful stuff.
For seniors lucky enough to have their full wits about them and a spritely active body to boot, the Echo Show offers entertainment, communication, and other easy-to-speak voice command features to increase the quality and convenience of life.
Those more dependent, such as the elderly with cognitive decline (dementia) or mobility challenges (Parkinson’s), can likely learn Alexa's simple commands, which are still quite useful, like making a phone/video/voice call for free and listening to music.
As the aging person’s abilities decline, the Echo Show helps family caregivers out. I turn on music and TV for my dad while he’s sitting in his chair all the time. “Alexa, play a Jimi Hendrix station.” “Alexa, put on Netflix.”
We host crazy fun dementia dance parties too.
I set reminders for me, my wife, my mom, and my dad - so we all remember the date/time the paid caregiver is coming. “Alexa, set a reminder for Tuesday at 10:30 AM that Brandon is coming over to hang out with dad and do PT.”
I knew I was getting the biggest available stand-up Alexa device with a screen. Today in February 2023, the Alexa Echo Show 10 is currently the newest version. The Alexa Dot (5th Generation) is the newest of the Amazon’s Echo series.
The Echo Show 15 has the biggest screen, but it’s mounting and doesn’t swivel and really quite old by now. I’m waiting for the next one, or maybe with buy a compatible big screen Fire TV to the best-ever Parkinson’s Entertainment Center a son could ever give his father.
I’ve got some saving up and learning to do before for that. But I’m telling you, the Dot (5th Gen) is a good buy. The Echo Show 10 is older technology for sure, but me and my dad like it a lot, and we’ll get the new one whenever it’s released for sure as well.
Love that 360-degree Echo Show swivel action!
In my experience (using it and watching my dad use it), the Echo Dot is easier for aging people to use than the Echo Show.
The Echo Show is not as reliable as the Echo Dot.
Understandable. The Dot only has a VOICE interface to handle. The Show has both the voice and the touchscreen. The Show processes your voice commands slower than the Echo, and sometimes the show gets lost.
Having a room where you can call out “Alexa, {anything}” from your chair is real nice for my sit-down daddio. He likes his chair. He watches TV from the Alexa Show part of the day, and watches TV from the Sony Home Theater TV.
If you get a bunch of Echos of any kind and put them around your house, you can call each other with a proper ringer to be answered, or “Drop in'' unannounced to catch them in the act. Oh do behave!
I’m trying to find a companion call service that just “Drops in” on my Dad’s Alexa Show next to his chair, so that me and my mom and wife don’t have to pick up the phone or nothing, and my dad can skill get friendly calls from TeleHealth companions we pay than in-home care for regular calls from them. But I can’t find a call service like that yet.
It follows my dad. I didn’t know that would happen when I bought it and it was a big fun silly robo-surprise to see in my living room. The Alexa Echo Show 10 finds my dads face (AI facial recognition) and then turns on a dime so that the screen is pointed toward your eyeball and you can see the screen.
It can do Netflix and Amazon Prime but you got to have paid accounts to get anything good, and figuring out how to get it on the screen playing what you want, so far is a bother. We just choose multi-season nature documentaries on Netflix on our Echo Show so that it just runs through and my dad’s happy.
He’ll ask us to change it when he's had enough of said series. You should try it!
The reminders are surprisingly helpful. I showed you what to say to Alexa already, but after that anytime you can also say: “Alexa, shoe me my reminders.”, and you get a rundown of upcoming things. Nifty!
You can use the Alexa Show with smart light to turn off, turn on, and “set the mood” by dimming them how you like. Having easy-to-change light brightness is really helpful for caregivers when transitioning to bedtime, following a more natural gradual bright-to-dime gets my dad nice and sleepy. “Alexa, play sleep sounds.”
Amazon and Mr. Bezos are smart cookies, and they know the older generation can get big use out of the whole voice thing. Who needs hands in 2023? The Parkinson’s Foundation even did something about Alexa back in 2020, but I think what I’m writing makes more sense for real caregiver families to can’t find the resources they’re talking about.
