Category: Cram Session
Hay all, I'm just wondering if anyone else on this sight has absolutely no rute memory or had it, and how they got around it? Roots to places will vanish from my head seconds after I do them, I can get somewhere and have absolutely no memory of the directional moves to get their and no idea of how to reverse them, it's not that I have no sense of direction, it's that I forget practically seconds after I learn. So, how did anyone over come this if you've had the same difficulty?
I don't think I have exactly the same problem you have with routes, but mine is that I can't always keep too many details in my head about a route. I can learn the route pretty fast, but if I get turned around somewhere, or someone gives too many direction/details I end up getting lost real fast. Like this one time, I was dropped off and figured out where I was and knew where I needed to go. But after awhile, I ended up somewhere else by walking too far in one direction. I had asked for directions along the way several times, but could only seem to remember 2 or 3 things at a time, therefore still getting lost all over again. So in that case, I had to ask someone to help me to where I was going. OK. That was a tiny bit off topic, but anyways, usually, I learn one route to somewhere and build on that to get to other places, but I don't remember directions, just how to get there as I'm going.
Leilani
I can tell someone the derections if I know which derection I'm starting off facing, but I can't normally remember them or like which streets or busses are going in what direction. I just kind of learn the route itself.
Leilani
Leilani
I'm the exact opposite...I remember routes almost instantly. That is, as long as I have a couple of practices (maybe two or three at the most,) I've got it.
tinkerbell. i know what you mean! i'm not very good at remembering roots
so, has anyone over come this problem through some methodology? I'm quite curious about this.
Well, or me, I noticed that when my O&M instructor had me write down the route to my high school (which included the streets and the regular and compass directions), I would reread it several times and could remember it like that for a few weeks or months. But if we were to go a different direction, I wouldn't know how to fix it if the driver got lost other than giving them hints on like what street the place is on and landmarks that are at or nearby. If you really would need to know the directions while you're walking, I would say to get a compass or one of those GPS things, (something I think would really help me anyway, if I want to start going out more on my own.) I also have been looking up routes like driving directions so I'll have an idea on how far a place is, and if I wrote them down in Braille, I think I'd be able to remember some of them. Hope these ideas help.
Leilani
Well actually what I do is make notes on my notetaker when I'm walking with my mobility instructor about which directions to turn, how many blocks, etc. and then what I do when i get home is put the route on braille cue cards and put them in my pocket for the next time that I go out walking by myself and i refer to them whenever i get stuck with directions... it works really well for me... i have been using this method for half a year now.
I used to be like that too... now, I do have a problem with reversing directions when going back and retracing steps...oyyy. Mel
I have bad spacial awareness, I seem to have no photographic memory, I have to practice a route many times before I can remember it, and even when I know it, if the landmarks change, I can become disorientated depending on how radically the route has changed. When I am with sighted people, I don't mind admitting so much that I'm lost, which is ok, because I am in mainstream anyway, but if I am ever around people with a sight problem, I get more embarrassed admitting that I have a problem, because I know quite a few blind people(one I can think of with less sight than me, me seeing light and shadows, and them seeing nothing) with quite good spacial awareness, some who have lost their sight later in life, which helps with the photographic part, and others who seem to have a nack for remembering routes. For me their seems to be no easy solution, I don't like carrying bits of paper around with me to try and remember, or note takers or whatever, as I get older, I'm hoping that maybe the problem will sort itself out, I don't know, I'll have to see.
it helps to think about clews and landmarks and such when you get first introduced to the route.
Have you tried tacktile maps?
That'd be hard to do, or at least time-consuming. But yeah. You could get an enlarged printout of a map of the area and then have someone help in putting a tactile outline with puff paint and some small flat objects or stickers for the landmarks. I did that so I'd have an idea of where each building was at my college, and it made it much easier to picture it in my mind. (I only had done the building though, but would like to try to do maps of other places when I have some free time.)
Leilani
Hi. I have the very same problem as some of you guys. I usually have to practice one route two or three or sometimes even four times before I actually learn how to get to a place. And of course reversing directions is another problem for me, because I have to learn the way back as well. So not only do I have to learn the way from, say, home to the bus station, I also have to practice and learn the way from the bus station to home, since they are both different ways in my mind... I really do have a problem with reversing directions and going back to places. Now using tactil maps seems a good idea to learning routes better and faster. I tried that when I lived in Texas School for the Blind and it did work wonderfully. Joaquín
lol mate I can do a root 4 times and I may, possibly, be able to remember about a quarter of it. Lol the inherent problem with this is obvious. However I never had any mobility training until last year so was not conditioned for it throughout my life and had no way to go anywhere until that time
I've never tried using tactile maps, a reason for that is, my skills at diagram analysis are weak anyway, so it's a vicious circle for me.
Fabolous, now I'm starting to wonder if being able to go from one place to another with ease has something to do with taking O&M courses. I know several blind people who haven't taken any, and I actually mean any O&M classes, and they move around pretty much like sighted people. I think being able to travel with ease has to do with some kind of innate orientation skill. Heck, I even know some sighted people who are really bad at learning and remembering routes! I think orientation is like an innate ability, some people are good at it and some are not, just like some of us are good at learning languages and some are not. Same goes for mobility skills, I think. What do you guys think?
I think that could be true. I can't say anything for people who haven't taken mobility lessons, as I don't know any who haven't. But I do know that some sighted people seem to be really good at directions (seeming to automatically know the cardinal directions without even thinking about it), and some who know their streets and can easily tell you how to get somewhere, as well as people who are not so good with either of these skills. And I'm sure there are blind people who are the same way, those who can easily orient themselves and can figure out an unfamiliar place or when they've made a mistake, and those who work best with fixed routes to places and have a hard time memorizing directions or at least too many details at one time.