VIDBE-Q Volume 66 Issue 4
Install an accessible GPS app on your phone so your child can hear the
streets near your home, on the way to the grocery store or church, etc. Lazarillo
and Goodmaps Explore are both free GPS apps that can give information about
where you are, what is around, and can even name each street as you cross it (for
those who are deafblind, there is the option of using a refreshable braille display to
make the output of the smartphone accessible). As an example, you could launch
the Lazarillo app on your phone as you head to the grocery store or the school, and
the app will read the street names as you drive by each street. There is nothing
technical needed in terms of knowing how to use GPS, the app just knows you are
driving and begins reading the street names once you launch the program (at
installation you will give it access to your location so it can know where you are as
you travel). This process of hearing the street names as you go about your regular
travels builds a cognitive map in the mind of your child. Much of what we learn is
through incidental learning; hearing street names and points of interest along
regular routes creates incidental learning through the auditory channel. Your child
will eventually become familiar with the street names near home, school, the store,
etc. They will eventually begin to anticipate those streets in order. Developing the
sequential memory of the streets is the same skill they will use when using public
transportation and remembering how close they are to their station or bus stop,
keeping oriented with landmarks through spatial updating, and more.
