March 2026
Written guides you can keep beside the keyboard
These pages use the same plain words as our classes. They are reminders, not a substitute for a group session. Each one is dated 2026 and can be printed in large type from your browser.
Read the full text on this page. If a guide raises a question about which programme to join, use the orientation call.
April 2026
What a chat assistant can do in plain terms
Read the full textMay 2026
Keeping names on family photographs
Read the full textJune 2026
How to ask a question that gets a useful answer
Read the full textJuly 2026
Making text larger on a phone
Read the full textMarch 2026
A short check before you trust a message
A useful pause is often enough. When a text, email, or voice note asks you to tap, reply, or send money, sit with these five steps. You do not need to become an expert. You need a habit that slows the moment down.
First, look at the sender using a number or address you already saved, not the one inside the message. Banks, delivery firms, and agencies in Singapore do not usually ask you to log in from a text. If the message uses urgency (“today only”, “your account will close”), treat that as a reason to wait, not a reason to hurry.
Second, if a voice sounds like family, ask a question only that person would know, on a call you place yourself. Cloned voices copy tone. They do not copy a shared memory. Third, do not tap a link to “check”. Open the official app or type the address you already use.
Fourth, tell one other person before you send money. A short conversation is cheaper than a transfer. Fifth, if you already tapped, stop. Do not enter a password to “undo” the mistake. Call the organisation on a number from a statement or from their official site.
Aiforseniorsclub teaches this pause in the four-week group Scam messages, cloned voices and fake offers. The class uses examples. You never have to share your own inbox.
April 2026
What a chat assistant can do in plain terms
A chat assistant is a box on a screen. You type a question in ordinary English. It writes a reply. The reply is produced by spotting patterns in a large collection of text. That is why it can sound fluent while still being wrong.
It is often useful for a first draft: a letter, a list, a simpler version of a paragraph. It can summarise a long page you already trust. It can suggest wording when a blank screen feels heavy. It cannot see your bank, your clinic file, or your private email unless you paste that information in. We advise against pasting anything you would not put on a postcard.
It does not know today’s bus time unless it looks it up, and even then it can invent a number. Treat times, fees, medical claims, and legal steps as drafts. Check them on an official page, or with a person you already trust. If the assistant cannot say where a fact came from, set the fact aside.
Our six-week programme First conversations with an assistant stays with three tasks until they feel familiar. The three-week group Checking whether an answer is true is the companion if you already type questions and want a checking habit.
May 2026
Keeping names on family photographs
Names fade from memory faster than faces. A simple method is enough: copy the folder first, then add a name and a year to one picture at a time. Do not let a tool rename an original file until you have a copy in a separate place.
On many phones you can add a caption. Write the person’s name as you say it in the family, plus a year if you know it. “Aunt Mei, 1984, Toa Payoh” is better than a long story. The story can live in a letter. The caption should stay short so it still fits on a small screen.
Some tools will guess a name from a face. Guessing is useful only if you confirm it. Reject a wrong label the same day, or it will spread through the album. If two cousins look alike, do the labelling yourself.
Keep originals. Repairs that brighten a faded scan belong on a duplicate. If a tool offers to “enhance” a face, look closely. Invented teeth and eyes are common. A slightly faded real picture is often kinder than a sharp invention.
The five-week programme Sorting, repairing and labelling family photographs walks through this with a group of six. Bring a sample folder, not the whole archive, for the first week.
June 2026
How to ask a question that gets a useful answer
A chat assistant fills in whatever you leave unsaid. If you write “help with a letter”, it will invent a recipient, a tone, and a length. If you write “a 120-word thank-you to my neighbour Mrs Tan for watering the plants, polite and plain”, the draft is closer to something you can send.
Name three things in the question: who it is for, how long it should be, and what to leave out. “Leave out jokes” is a useful limit. “Use short sentences” is another. Then read the reply aloud. If a sentence is not yours, change it. The tool is a clerk. You are the author.
Ask it to try again rather than starting a new chat. “Shorter, and without the word delighted” is a complete instruction. Save the version you like. Copy it into email and edit it there, so a later change in the chat box cannot alter what you already approved.
The four-week group Asking better questions practises this with letters, lists, and simple plans. Fee: four sessions at S$38, which is S$152.
July 2026
Making text larger on a phone
Small type is a setting, not a personal failing. On most phones there is a display or accessibility menu with a text size slider. Raise it until a paragraph on a news page is comfortable. Then open your messaging app and check that bubbles still fit. If they wrap too much, ease the slider back one step.
Bold text and higher contrast help in bright rooms. Captions on video calls are a separate switch, often inside the call app. Pin the three apps you actually use on the first screen and move the rest into a folder named “Later”. Fewer icons means fewer wrong taps.
If a relative already enlarged the screen for you and you cannot find the setting, that is a good reason to book a one-to-one hour. We will sit on a video link while you tap. We will not take remote control.
The two-week group Bigger text, clearer screens, fewer taps covers this with other people who want the same change. Two sessions at S$38, totalling S$76.
