This product is my new go-to recommendation for senior citizens. It’s a great Father’s Day gift for any dad and a wonderful gift for the “what-do-we-buy-the-grandparents” question, whether it’s a holiday or not!

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Echo Dot – 5 stars out of 5!

The Echo Dot (aka: “Alexa”) has numerous benefits for the elderly (and the not-so-elderly!), and I’ll list several of those below. However, I want to give you two possible negatives first—and get those out of the way!

Negative #1: You need to have Wi-Fi access. This hadn’t occurred to me until I recommended this to a friend the other day. She explained that her mom doesn’t have Wi-Fi availability, so the Echo Dot would not work for her.

Negative #2: If your recipient has vision issues or little understanding of technology, then someone who has at least a minimal knowledge of the Internet will need to set up the Echo Dot prior to use. This includes putting all safety measures into place for security reasons. (These are carefully explained in the setup process for your Echo Dot—things like not having it set to be “searching” constantly for sound but to “wake up” when called upon.)

Now to the good stuff:

• “Alexa, what time is it?” – For the vision impaired, this is a blessing. Time gives order and security to our lives, but when you are unable to see the clock, both nights and days can seem long.
• “Alexa, call _______” – When setting up your Echo Dot, be sure to have this feature accessible. It’s a great source of reassurance to the recipient and to his or her loved ones, knowing that if an emergency arises, “Alexa” can call for help and/or call a loved one.
• “Alexa, tell me about ______________ (historical fact).” Hours and hours of fun, learning, and joy!
• “Alexa, add ______ to my shopping list.” This is a wonderful tool so that the individual can simply “call out” when using the last teaspoon of this or the last piece of that.
• “Alexa, create a playlist.” Music at the drop of a hat…or the call of a name (“Alexa”)!
• “Alexa, add, ‘Take medication,’ to my morning routine.” For those whose loved ones can benefit from this reminder in the morning or even throughout the day, this will provide an added peace of mind!
• Once programmed to so do, the Echo Dot has voice recognition, and “Alexa” will recognize the speaker’s voice.
• “Alexa, read to me” …”play Jeopardy” …”tell me a joke” …”give me the weather forecast.” This list goes on and on. Signing up for the informative e-mails provides you with innumerable options and innovative ideas for helping your loved one use the Echo Dot to its fullest potential.

Added bonuses (in our eyes):

• For added use, purchase the “Smart Plug” so that simply by saying, “Alexa, turn on the lights,” the lamp comes on. The double bonus, it also works for most TVs, your phone, the coffee maker, and many other electronic devices that may be useful to have available via voice control.
• It’s about the size of a hockey puck. This is not some gargantuan device that will take up valuable counter space.
• It’s transportable. Because it plugs into the wall, you can easily move it from room to room if necessary.
• There is an option to “Drop In” on another Echo Dot in the house. For this reason, we got our loved one two of them, so that if someone is upstairs and she is downstairs, she can use it like an intercom to communicate easily. It was totally worth the cost of the second Echo Dot!

Friends, this barely scratches the surface of the benefits of the Echo Dot, but we have already found it so helpful and such a “plus” for our loved ones, that I couldn’t help but share this as one of our featured Friday Favorites!

To learn more and to order your Echo Dot(s), click here.

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