If you are directionally challenged. . . .

[4everHis]

how have you compensated? My dd, now driving, is at a total loss on gauging north, south, east and west. Giving her directions over the phone was almost impossible today because she didn't know this. I have always just 'gotten' it.  How can I help her? I know, besides gps and a compass  :glare:

 

 

[Night Elf]

I need visual sites, not street names. And please don't tell me to go east or west on such and such hwy. Instead, I like to hear 'turn left at the gas station, go straight 2 miles and watch for a fence on the right side. At the end of the fence is the road to turn onto.' Yes, I'm totally serious.

[gardenmom5]

why are you opposed to a compass?  any autoparts store has them that you can stick on the dash for maybe $10.

other than teaching to pay attention to the angle of the sun - which varies by time of day and time of year, that's the best.  even then, unless you've been watching its progress through the sky- you can get turned around.

 

I live between two mt ranges.  one east - one west.  I have a good sense of direction, but even I have gotten turned around.

[wapiti]

I agree with Night Elf.  Try giving her visuals.

 

Perhaps she is more visual-spatial than auditory-sequential.  I do much better with seeing a map before the trip.  Oddly enough, the places I grew up in and went to college in are places where I didn't use maps - it was never even suggested nor did it occur to me - and there I have the most difficulty getting around.  For some reason, in my picture-oriented mind, while growing I imagined the downtown to be north when in fact it was west of our suburban home and I am permanently messed up when I drive there.

 

Step by step, oral directions?  Forget it.  If I have no visual context for the steps, they go in one ear and out the other.  Show me a map and it's no trouble at all, even if I only looked at the map for a few minutes and then start driving.

 

Have her spend some time looking at a large map of your area on-line.  Note where major locations are in relation to your house.  Have her map out routes beforehand with Google.  Does she have a smartphone?  That can help too (love clicking the blue arrow :))

[fairfarmhand]

I am that person. I cannot make a picture in my head of how to get somewhere. I need left and right turns, street names, and landmarks. I can look at a map, but it must be in the seat beside me, and I turn it when I make turns on the road.

 

Yep. Pretty pitiful isn't it. My dh gave me his gps because I am so bad. He worries about me driving in unfamiliar places.

[4everHis]

A lot of the roads in Michigan are screwy. You have to drive east make a Michigan Uy to go west. She was sitting in a parking lot at one of these streets and I had no way of explaining to her which way to turn, using left and right, because I had no idea which kind of Uy she'd need to make to get her to the road that runs north. Which turning left or right on would be dependent on which way she was coming from east or west? Yeah, I'm thinking she might warrant GPS.  My advice was walk into the nearest business and say, "I need to go north on Rochester Rd. How do I make that happen?" This child has a hard time approaching people like that.  I don't see a smartphone in her near future. I am seeing a compass.  

 

Thanks for the input. I will be more mindful of how we get directions for her.

[Mrs Mungo]

I am a visual/landmark girl. So, I would need you to say something like "turn toward Target/the drugstore/the train tracks" or something like that. But, I also have a compass in my car. That helps, but sometimes a road doesn't run along a true N/S, even when people think it does. That has caused me problems in the past. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Mapquest or Googlemaps works best for me.  I can either print out directions only or directions and a map.  

[wapiti]

Come to think of it, not only have her spend time with Google maps before she goes someplace, after viewing the map and route in "map" mode, click "satellite" mode so she can see the actual birds-eye view of the route.  For many places you will also be able to go down to street level at any major turns or tricky areas and/or at the destination to see what's there.  And I agree, a printed map can help too.

 

If she's new to driving, she hasn't had much reason to know north south east west before.  

[Belacqua]

I need visual sites, not street names. And please don't tell me to go east or west on such and such hwy. Instead, I like to hear 'turn left at the gas station, go straight 2 miles and watch for a fence on the right side. At the end of the fence is the road to turn onto.' Yes, I'm totally serious.

 

Same here. Past the Target, or before? Do I turn at the house with the ugly blue curtains, or keep going until that farm with the weird cow who always tries to get the grass on the other side of the fence? It also helps to give me a landmark that's past my destination. I'll always treasure the directions I once got to an elegant wedding reception: "If you get to the strip club sign with the neon cowboy boots, you've gone too far."

 

I know you excluded GPS, but I have to put in a plug. I am now emotionally and quite possibly physically dependent upon my Garmin. If on an overcast day it takes a few minutes to find the satellite, I get lightheaded and anxious. Even if I'm just going somewhere I've been a hundred times. I love my GPS beyond measure (even if it did insist, just that one time, that my house was in the middle of Pasadena City College).

[Mrs Mungo]

Also, does she have a good street map of your town? 

[texasmama]

GPS on my iphone is very helpful.  :)

[Paige]

I would make sure she had GPS. In places where GPS doesn't work well, turn by turn directions are far more helpful to me than a map. My DH insists on making me a map, as if it will be useful to me, and if I just look at it enough, I will appreciate it. No. It just clutters up my turn by turn directions page. Back before GPS was standard, I liked using turn by turn directions that included mileage between turns. I tend to get nervous because I feel lost even when I'm not, so I know if it says it will be 5 miles before the turn, then I can watch my odometer and be fairly sure I haven't missed the turn. I appreciate landmarks, but the street names and mileage are more important.

 

When I would drive somewhere new for the first time, I really liked having a dry run as a passenger first so I could see the route. It does not matter if I have been somewhere 100 times if I never drove there myself- I need to go again so I can make mental notes and pay attention. It doesn't just sink in because I have been in the car. I don't need the dry runs so much anymore with GPS, but I like it. I like to know that this is where the parking lot is, this is where a lane ends, this is where it's one way w/no u-turns, etc.

 

I was very directionally challenged when younger. I got lost for hours on foot in my own neighborhood that I grew up in! My friend got grounded because her parents did not believe that I could have gotten her so lost and thought we were up to something. Now that I'm older, I've gotten a tiny bit better. GPS is a lifesaver. I would not appreciate a compass. I can read maps, but I don't internalize them. I can follow one on foot, but in a car, I need to watch the road.

[Jeannie in NJ]

I am just like Night Elf and Belacqua, I need landmarks to find my way places.  I was told the other day to find a certain medical office I had to go cattycorner to the dental office, I found it easily.

 

I live on an island and the only reason I know my directions here is that I know the ocean is east.  Once I go offshore, I have major trouble and I have to take maps with me everywhere and I also turn the map in the direction I am going lol.

 

My dd, however, has to only go somewhere once (even if someone else is driving) and she instantly knows how to get there.  Me, I can ride to a place a hundred times and I still have trouble finding it.  My dd cannot read maps but her sense of direction is much more practical than my reading map skills.

[TravelingChris]

My dd is like this.  She has to borrow my smartphone but I will be upgrading hers next month.

[Mrs Mungo]

 

 

I live on an island and the only reason I know my directions here is that I know the ocean is east.  Once I go offshore, I have major trouble and I have to take maps with me everywhere and I also turn the map in the direction I am going lol.

 

Here in Hawaii they give directions in terms of Mauka (toward the mountains or inland) and Makai (toward the sea). Much easier than N/S, etc since you can usually see the mountains. ;)

[Ellie]

I can use compass directions to a certain extent, but not by looking at the sun and figuring it out, lol. For example, the interstate goes north-south (that it sometimes veers off true north or south is irrelevant).  I can orient myself to other cities by whether they are east or west of the freeway. I know that San Antonio and Corpus Christi are south of me, Waco and Dallas/Ft. Worth are north of me. Houston is east of me. The Panhandle is north and east, and El Paso is east.

 

I confess that when I lived in San Jose for 16 years, I was south of almost everything I did, so leaving home was mostly north, coming home was mostly south. Here, I'm north of everything, and after 9 years I still get messed up, lol.

 

Only using "left" or "right" doesn't always help, because if I'm coming from *this* direction instead of *that* one, then the left or right turn will be different, KWIM? When I give someone directions, I include compass directions if it's important, as well as street names and landmarks (if any). If I know how many feet or miles, I say that, too, because even if the driver isn't going to measure the distance, she'll know that she'll be driving a long way or not very far.

 

I have been given really bad directions way too many times by people who *only* know landmarks ("turn where the police officer parks his car"...what if he is at work??? Sheesh--it's your neighborhood--get to know the street names!!!). ::bangs head on keyboard:: I have been mislead by my GPS and by MapQuest, Google Maps, and MapsOnUs. When I go somewhere I haven't been before, I check all the mapping programs and program the GPS.

[4everHis]

She's figured it all out. One of the main problems was she was in an area I've never been to so I couldn't give landmarks at all. She get's flustered easily which is something I'm working on with her but even I get flustered when I hit the big city traffic and especially all the roads in Mi that won't let you turn around easily. I will be looking into more helps for her. 

 

Thanks again for all your replies.

[Mrs Mungo]

 

 

I have been given really bad directions way too many times by people who *only* know landmarks ("turn where the police officer parks his car"...what if he is at work??? Sheesh--it's your neighborhood--get to know the street names!!!). ::bangs head on keyboard:: I have been mislead by my GPS and by MapQuest, Google Maps, and MapsOnUs. When I go somewhere I haven't been before, I check all the mapping programs and program the GPS.

 

I'm a landmark person, but I give really good directions for that reason. 

 

The first time we lived in Hawaii? These were the simplistic directions to my house: take 76 S, turn right on Keoneula, turn left on Kapolei Pkwy, turn left on Kekaiholo, turn left on Kaileonui, turn right on Kaikoele. 

 

Most people were just not good enough at reading the signs fast enough, LOL. So, landmarks such as take the second left turn after the school were much easier.

[Ravin]

I rely on Google maps navigator, whether walking driving, or using public transit. In my city it even works better than the public transit. website for planning trips.

[Pegasus]

My complete lack of a sense of direction has provided my friends with endless amusement.  I can follow a map or careful directions to a new location, and then get lost trying to get back home.  Folks with a good sense of direction do not understand how this can happen.  When I was helping lead a Girl Scout troop, the girls starting calling me the "U-turn queen" for all the times I would turn around trying to get them somewhere. . .or home again!

 

I also can't give directions.  I hand the phone to my DH if someone is trying to find our house. I just can't do it.

[Alessandra]

I can use a map & compass, but cannot navigate by landmarks. I get lost easily. No sense of direction without a map.

 

For me what worked was to plan the route ahead of time, noting the streets that came before the turn off I needed. I also allowed extra time for getting lost, missing turns, etc. I never, ever try to cut across traffic or make unsafe turns. When I am lost, it seems forever, but the clock always tells me it is much less time than what I thought. Safety first!

 

Now I use Apple maps of my iPhone. I plug it into the AUX input and the voice patiently directs me where to go. If I am in the wrong lane and miss a turn, the voice gives me directions to get back on track.. But I still check the route beforehand on Google Maps and keep a print out with me.

[Quiver0f10]

I need visual sites, not street names. And please don't tell me to go east or west on such and such hwy. Instead, I like to hear 'turn left at the gas station, go straight 2 miles and watch for a fence on the right side. At the end of the fence is the road to turn onto.' Yes, I'm totally serious.

This is me.

[unsinkable]

Come to think of it, not only have her spend time with Google maps before she goes someplace, after viewing the map and route in "map" mode, click "satellite" mode so she can see the actual birds-eye view of the route. For many places you will also be able to go down to street level at any major turns or tricky areas and/or at the destination to see what's there. And I agree, a printed map can help too.

 

If she's new to driving, she hasn't had much reason to know north south east west before.

Remember a certain social studies teacher with a big doofy mustache who'd give map quizzes with all the major roads and highways?!?!

[texasmama]

I've been to acupuncture six times in the past month.  Today, I went again.  Sadly, I turned the wrong way while trying to go back to work, and I had to turn around.  I recognized this wrong turn because I made the same one last time.  I will likely make it again. People make fun of me, but I have some interesting adventures around town.  :)

 

When I was younger, I kept a Mapsco in my car.  This proved to be very helpful.

[GSOchristie]

GPS. I can't function without one. I can't even let Siri speak directions to me because I just can't get it without the words and map, right there on the dashboard.

[GSOchristie]

And if I go the wrong way the first time I go somewhere I will NEVER be able to figure out how to get there on my own, even after driving it twenty times. I always revert back to the first wrong way, I hate it!

[wapiti]

Remember a certain social studies teacher with a big doofy mustache who'd give map quizzes with all the major roads and highways?!?!

 

I remember that teacher (I think I had him write one of my college app recommendations, LOL), but I don't remember the quizzes... some things I must have blocked from my memory.

[unsinkable]

I remember that teacher (I think I had him write one of my college app recommendations, LOL), but I don't remember the quizzes... some things I must have blocked from my memory.

Oh, I love maps and such so it stuck in my head!

 

I told my son about it and he wanted me to make him one, LOL!

 

I sketched one out. He did great! I think it's helped him IRL.

[GSOchristie]

I also remember driving before GPS, I would stop and ask for directions. I could only manage to make it to the first turn, then I would have to stop and ask again, go to the next turn, wash, rinse, repeat. I am not making this up! Oh, GPS, how I love thee, let me count the ways....

 

I'm glad she figured it out :).

[Jeannie in NJ]

here is how I give directions to my house

 

take xx street to the end, where if you went further, you would run into the wetlands, turn left cause if you turned right you would also run into the wetlands.  Then drive 2/3 of the way down my street until you come to a white house with blue shutters and 2 huge holly trees in front   (and then I will describe our cars if they are in front)

 

Where my mother lived in Texas, her directions were  "Drive to the water tower and just before you get to it, make a left and that is my house".

[Jean in Newcastle]

My directions (after all the street name ones) is turn at the corner with the mustard colored house on one corner of the intersection, the salmon colored one on the other corner, and the electric blue house on the third, I can't remember the house on the other side of the side of the intersection because it is a normal color.  Once they stop laughing, I assure them that I am serious.  

[Luanne]

Fortunately I have lived in the same city for 47 of my almost 49 years of life or I would be lost all the time.  If I have to go someplace I haven't been before, I either get detailed directions to the place or take my daughter with me.  She can find her way around anywhere.

[KungFuPanda]

North/south means nothing to a person who isn't familiar enough with the area to have a mental map in her head. Is she directionally challenged? Or did she just never pay attention to how to get from place to place until she started driving? People can't instinctively 'feel' North. They've either seen a map or formed one in their heads based upon road experience.

 

Get her a cheap dashboard compass, or translate your directions to left/right/landmark directions.

[KungFuPanda]

here is how I give directions to my house

 

take xx street to the end, where if you went further, you would run into the wetlands, turn left cause if you turned right you would also run into the wetlands. Then drive 2/3 of the way down my street until you come to a white house with blue shutters and 2 huge holly trees in front (and then I will describe our cars if they are in front)

 

Where my mother lived in Texas, her directions were "Drive to the water tower and just before you get to it, make a left and that is my house".

There is no way to know when you've driven 2/3rds of the way down a road without driving the whole road and turning around!

[Ellie]

My complete lack of a sense of direction has provided my friends with endless amusement.  I can follow a map or careful directions to a new location, and then get lost trying to get back home.  Folks with a good sense of direction do not understand how this can happen.  When I was helping lead a Girl Scout troop, the girls starting calling me the "U-turn queen" for all the times I would turn around trying to get them somewhere. . .or home again!

 

I also can't give directions.  I hand the phone to my DH if someone is trying to find our house. I just can't do it.

 

My dd has a friend who has been fired for the rest of her life as the one to give directions. Any time in the past that they let her drive (or give directions), they always, always ended up lost. :cursing: And this is in an area where she has lived all her life.

 

I have no patience with people like this. Sorry. I'm sure they're very nice people otherwise, lol.

[KungFuPanda]

how have you compensated? My dd, now driving, is at a total loss on gauging north, south, east and west. Giving her directions over the phone was almost impossible today because she didn't know this. I have always just 'gotten' it. How can I help her? I know, besides gps and a compass :glare:

Can she get turn by turn navigation on her phone?

[unsinkable]

I used to play " tell me how to get home" and "what street are we on" all the time when the kids were younger.

 

It's useful knowledge to know where you are and how to get home.

[Mommyof4ks]

GPS! I can get lost in a box, so my GPS goes everywhere I go. A compass does me no good.

[lailasmum]

I find in the countryside I can figure out directions without much effort  and I sort of keep track of north south without realising. But I am bad in built up areas. It's easy to get turned around. I love our tom tom for that.

[Laura Corin]

How is she on left and right?  FWIW, British cities are rarely laid out on a grid pattern, so most directions rely on left and right.

 

L

[Chris in VA]

I still don't know how to figure out NSEW. Esp if it's cloudy.

Hate GPS--half the time they say things too quickly, the other half I can't hear the darn thing.

Can't read maps. 

Can't go backwards thru a neighborhood once I've gotten there to get back out.

 

Mapquest is my friend.

 

I think I truly am directionally dyslexic.

[texasmama]

I still don't know how to figure out NSEW. Esp if it's cloudy.

Hate GPS--half the time they say things too quickly, the other half I can't hear the darn thing.

Can't read maps. 

Can't go backwards thru a neighborhood once I've gotten there to get back out.

 

Mapquest is my friend.

 

I think I truly am directionally dyslexic.

This is probably my most frustrating issue.  It is why I got lost after acupuncture.  It seems like a ridiculous problem for a mature, responsible, intelligent adult to have.  lol

 

Also, if I have not been somewhere for a while, even if I have been there 100 times before, I am unlikely to be able to get there without help of some kind.

 

My directional brain is broken.  Always has been. I don't think it is fixable.  I have tried many "tricks" to fix it, and now I just rely on helps such as GPS.

 

BTW, I am living in the same area I have lived in most of my life, which does help some...but I still turned the wrong way trying to get back to work from acupuncture.  I have full confidence that I will do it again.  I even said in my head, "Go right, then left." or somesuch.  STILL GOT IT WRONG. Ugh.

[Chris in VA]

LOL--yeah, I so relate, texasmama.

 

When I first started dog walking, which involves driving all over to people's homes, albeit my area is quite small, I did a Mapquest route, going from house to house. Now I don't have to think about it, but boy, it was tough at first! 

 

I compensate by having kids who are not directionally dyslexic. I don't know what I'll do when they are no longer home! lol

[Belacqua]

How is she on left and right?  FWIW, British cities are rarely laid out on a grid pattern, so most directions rely on left and right.

 

L

 

I have a friend who struggles with left/right, and driving with her is an adventure. She really tries to be helpful and tell me where to go and when to turn, but it usually sounds something like, "OK. It's up there. No. There [gesturing vaguely ahead]. Right. I mean, yes. Left. Wait, right? [checks her hands to see which one has the ring. waves her left hand in front of me]. Left! No, RIGHT!"

[Jeannie in NJ]

I got lost this morning going to the place where I get my annual mammogram.  I know I only need to got there once a year but it is just across the street from the hospital.  I drove 2 blocks past and pulled into the Urgent Care parking lot.  I said to myself, "This does not look like the building plus why would I be getting my mammogram at the urgent care plus I know the correct place is across from the hospital".  So I left and did find the correct place, luckily I always add in extra time for "getting lost" so was not late.

 

also coming home, I turn at Gold's Gym to get on the parkway, only it has not been called Gold's Gym for many years.  It is called some other fitness name.  I was thinking of this thread and would I give someone directions such as "Turn left at the building that used to be Gold's Gym"  lol that would only work for someone that lived here for many years and then they would prob not need the directions but any poor newcomer that I would give directions to.

[GSOchristie]

I, too, can't tell my right from my left without looking at which hand makes an "L" :blush: .  I really think this is the root of my problems with directions.  I pray my kids do not have this disability.

 

[Belacqua]

Hardly the point of the thread, but I'm curious. Why is up/down usually easy and intuitive, but left/right is more difficult? I'm assuming it's just that we're typically standing on "down" so it's always there, whereas left/right are more relative to surroundings, but is there a more interesting explanation?

[Jeannie in NJ]

I learned right because it is the hand that I write with.  My aunt is left handed and she has never been able to tell her left/right directions

[texasmama]

I got lost this morning going to the place where I get my annual mammogram. I know I only need to got there once a year but it is just across the street from the hospital. I drove 2 blocks past and pulled into the Urgent Care parking lot. I said to myself, "This does not look like the building plus why would I be getting my mammogram at the urgent care plus I know the correct place is across from the hospital". So I left and did find the correct place, luckily I always add in extra time for "getting lost" so was not late.

 

also coming home, I turn at Gold's Gym to get on the parkway, only it has not been called Gold's Gym for many years. It is called some other fitness name. I was thinking of this thread and would I give someone directions such as "Turn left at the building that used to be Gold's Gym" lol that would only work for someone that lived here for many years and then they would prob not need the directions but any poor newcomer that I would give directions to.

yes to all of this. It's embarrassing to be us!