Can you follow maps or directions?

[ofwarren]

I've always been really bad at it. Once I've visually found my way around a place, I know where I am by using landmarks but I just cannot follow directions either on a physical map or even the ones on Google maps which tell you which way to go.

I was in a city with my child alone a few days ago due to his hospital appointment and I needed to find my way to the hotel and I ended up really getting upset and stressed and on the verge of meltdown trying to work out how to get there using Google maps.
I can't seem to translate what's on screen to what I can actually see.

I've read that it's one of the symptoms of dyscalculia which I definitely think I have. I cannot remember strings of numbers or dates and I still get my kids dates of birth wrong and don't know my own phone number that I've had for over 15 years. I cannot do any maths higher than what they do in year 2 in primary school.

I'm very bad at it. I have very little instinctive sense of direction, and often muddle left and right.

Sat Nav on dictation works best for me. It warns of turnings in advance so I have that moment to think about left and right. Not that I can personally drive but I have used it for walking routes with some success.__

That's a good idea actually. I'd probably be able to follow it better listening to it telling me which way to go.

I muddle left and right constantly, but actually have a pretty good sense of direction (I call it my "homing beacon" - I can find my way home from anywhere and can point in the rough direction of home from anywhere). I can follow maps and directions (so long as I can make Ls with my fingers to figure out left and right!)

My brother, who also has ASD, is fine with left and right but can't follow maps and needs me to look up routes for him on google maps and then "walk" him along the route - dropping the little person in street view and then walking along the road as if we were really walking the route.

Omg, why didn't I think of the little man!!!
Instead I was walking the wrong way and getting upset.
I totally forgot about that feature, that would have been so helpful.

It really helps him! I find it useful too, less for directions and more for seeing what things will look like. I don't like going to new places, especially on my own, so I can drop the little person and see what the place will look like. For example, when I got my covid booster it was in a different place to my other ones, so I dropped the little man in front of it and saw what it looked like, and also sussed out where to park.

Before SatNavs on phones, we had a 'Tom Tom' and I used to absolutely love the Australian narrator. He had a laid back, jokey manner and would say things like 'Take the motorway, it's time to cruise!' and 'Windows up, grab those sunnies and don't let the seagulls steal your chips' .He was the sort of person who you could never imagine getting lost or panicked and it was great having him in the car with us.

Sadly our 'Tom Tom' is long out of support and I don't have the money to spare to buy another one when we don't strictly need it because we have the phone Google Maps navigation. I do miss him though!

I am also unable to follow directions of any sort
so relieved this not just me!
I cannot really go anywhere new by my own I get so disorientated and confused and scared
I had to learn to drive cos my job moved somewhere inaccessible by public transport. It is a complete nightmare and I only drive to work and walk absolutely everywhere else as I just cannot cope with driving (would report myself or stop completely if I could get to work)
is this an autism thing? I never know if it is autism or just my brain not able to do something (I struggle a lot in daily life cos I live by my own no family)

I don't think it's specifically an autism thing but I do wonder whether our specific challenges makes it more likely.

I once ended up in Sheffield when I was trying to get to Oldham from Manchester city centre. Last week I got lost in my home city because some of the shops have closed down or changed their logos. I doubt I'd leave the house much if it weren't for Google maps!

I'm absolutely terrible at following directions and regularly get lost even with the help of Google Maps! I have a very poor sense of direction generally, and I'm also very clumsy. Not sure if it is ADHD / ASD (awaiting assessment for both) or maybe dyspraxia?

I have a pretty good sense of direction and can also follow maps/road signs, however give me verbal instructions of how to get somewhere and it's gone from my brain before you've even finished telling me!

I have dyspraxia and autism sometimes I not sure which is causing me issues or if like Op say everyone has the issues they just might be more pronounced with me cos of these
Like at work or in genera, if something happens I really cannot cope with I am on the floor in meltdown crying etc my colleagues and friends can cope with it differently (I really hate this about me)
I have really got hurt sometimes in meltdowns where I sometimes hit me too hard on my head ☹️

I'm the same. I cannot follow verbal instructions at all, but I can read/follow a map.

If it's feasible, I will do 'dummy runs' to new places related to work. If it's driving to a new place for a day out etc, it's okay if I get lost/go off track as there are no time constraints, but on days out, I'm never alone so I can always hand the driving over to DH if necessary, or he's usually driving in the first place as I don't want to!

I've never used Google maps as I'm of the generation that used paper maps and a road atlas and I hate mobile phones and I hate sat navs as they're often not reliable and don't always quote the 'proper' route.

I can manage maps but I really have to concentrate on it. I have no innate sense of direction at all. I often say I went up/down a road with no awareness of the elevation- I just mean ‘along’ but it confuses dh, and in my head I imagine all roads to be straight lines intersecting at right angles. I cannot visualise it at all, so I’m often very surprised to find that one area is very close to another.

If I’m walking somewhere I put in one AirPod and listen to the directions on Google maps. I find that easier than trying to follow a moving map on a screen.

I’m often very surprised to find that one area is very close to another.
I did exactly that yesterday. I was looking for the cinema on Google maps at home and I vaguely knew the area its in. I noticed that right behind it is the health centre that we go to and I was so confused. I had assumed they were nowhere near each other!
If I had to make my way from the health centre to the cinema I'd go totally back on myself and go the way I 'know'.

Not at all - the joke in our family is that if you switched up the furniture in our house, I would genuinely be a bit confused for a few days.

When people tell me directions, to me it sounds like the teacher from 'Peanuts' - 'you turn right here, then '''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ' for about five minutes. I smile and nod and then go and get lost and hopefully find where I was going eventually.

Ironically, I LOVE looking at and reading maps, especially antique ones.

I love looking at maps too
Interestingly I saw one of those online autism tests that had the question "do you follow rivers on maps to see where they originate?"
Of course I do! I love doing that!

Not at all. Tom Tom was a revelation for me. Waze is an essential day to day.

Me (autistic): it's like my head is a Sat nav
Husband (autistic, adhd, dyspraxia): couldn't even tell you where north is

I can navigate myself pretty well on foot, just have a good sense of the direction I need to be headed in. Verbal directions go in one ear and just disappear. Maps I think are ok, although I haven't had to follow one in a very long time thanks to sat nav and google maps.

I do get completely disorientated in department stores and completely lose all sense of direction. My local Debenhams, before it closed was horrible and Ikea is an absolute nightmare, I can't wait to get out of there by the time we get to the kitchen bits and bobs, and feel a bit panicky. I don't go to Ikea very often for this reason. I've always put it down to the lack of windows.

I’m terrible with directions. I can’t really read maps, I wander off the wrong way even using GPS on google and I get left and right mixed up.

Even sat nav is no good because it says ‘in 200 feet, turn left’. Or ‘head east’. Okay, well what the hell is 200 feet? Where is east? Do I look like a sea captain??

The fact that the map is right in front of me doesn’t help because I can’t judge the distance between the little arrow and which street I’m supposed to go down so I end up either missing the turn or turning too early.

I even get lost in places I’ve been a million times, and familiar places look completely different in the dark. I recently got off the bus and had to cut through the park at the back of my own house - the hedges had grown taller so it looked completely unfamiliar and I got myself all turned around.

I scored a lot of points on the ‘following a journey’ bit when I applied for PIP

I have no sense of direction and it's taken me a long time to be able to remember my small village !

I really struggle with instructions of any sort really that contain more than one thing. So take a left then a right all I can think about is take a left and the rest gets forgotten. So I suck at directions, also terrible at left and right but I do that trick where you put out your hand and see which one shows the L sign in your fingers for left.

I'm exactly the same. I even struggle reading the instructions for a microwave meal. I have to read it a bit at a time.

I am microwaveless after an incident a couple of years ago similar to that where I was struggling with working out the time and power as the instructions felt overwhelming and basically just cried on my floor over a micro meal 😂 and so I got rid of it.
I shove everything in the oven at the same temperature, and use the very scientific method of prodding it now to see cooked or not.