pop up buttons on smart phones

At a friends house I tried to get my left fingers under it to hold it like normal people do. After 10 minutes of trying and not being able to get the first two fingers straightened out enough at the same time and long enough, I gave up in failure.  One handed use of a smart phone means holding it against my body to rotate it to get my thumb in position. So far I haven't dropped the phone from high enough to break it. Rings don't work either. What is your therapists solution?