Teaching students to align with traffic sounds
Dona Sauerburger

See note that was not included in video.

The following procedure can be helpful for teaching students to use the sound of traffic to align for street crossings or maintain alignment in open spaces.

Choosing a site:

Since you want your students to hear the sound of vehicles passing, it is best to avoid places where the vehicles often start and stop, such as at a corner with a stop sign or traffic signal. Often the best training sites are midblock.
The further that a vehicle can be heard as it approaches and recedes, the easier it is to extrapolate its line of travel. Thus the site should be
- quiet enough that the student can hear single vehicles in the parallel street (the street beside the student) from a distance as they pass, and
- there should not be so much traffic that the sound of vehicles as they approach and recede is often masked by other vehicles.
Make sure that the student has no cues for alignment other than the sound of traffic, by choosing a site where:
- it is shady (the student can't feel the sun);
- the ground is level (no slope) and flat (no cracks);
- there is no steady sound that can be localized.

Procedure:

Have students hear what parallel traffic sounds like when aligned, compared to when they are misaligned:

Position the students in alignment (with the street beside them being parallel to their line of travel) and explain that this is how the traffic sounds when they are aligned.
Encourage them to listen to the vehicle from when it is first audible to when it recedes as far as possible.
Allow them to experience the sound of as many passing vehicles as is necessary for them to get "the feel" for how the traffic sounds when they are aligned. They will sometimes tell you in their own words how it sounds to them -- each student seems to describe it differently.
Have the students turn slightly out of alignment and listen to the difference in the sound of the line of the parallel traffic, and then turn back to see how it compares to traffic sounds when correctly aligned. Do this until the students report that they can hear a difference. If necessary, have them turn far out of alignment (perhaps even facing with the street directly in front of or behind them) until they can hear the difference, then have them try to hear more subtle differences.
Repeat the same procedure by turning slightly out of alignment in the other direction, and listen for the difference.

Practice getting alignment:

Have the students turn around or get disoriented and then get themselves aligned -- that is, position themselves so that the traffic sounds the same as it did when they were aligned.
If they think they are aligned but they're not, explain that they are incorrect and have them listen again to figure out which way they need to turn to correct it, and how much to turn.
Accurate feedback is important -- if they are told that they are straight when they are slightly out of alignment, it will be more difficult for them to learn what is straight.
In the beginning, especially for students who are having difficulty with this task, I will often accept slight errors, explaining that it isn't perfect but is good enough for now. When they have become more skilled, I ask them to continue working at the alignment until they are perfectly straight.

Keeping aligned while crossing

I first disorient them by guiding them in circles at the corner, then face us to cross the street either straight, or crooked. It is important to stand where they cannot feel clues about their alignment, such as curbs or slopes.
When there is traffic movement on the parallel street, I guide them into the crosswalk, and the students listen to the traffic and report whether we're going straight.
If they think the traffic sounds like we're not going straight, the students have to correct our direction, steering the guide to walk in the correct direction.

NOTE

[not included in the video]

Understanding positional concepts:

One effective way for the student and you to convey precisely what direction the traffic is moving (or how it should be moving in relation to the student), you can hold a rod (such as a cane) horizontally in the direction that you are trying to convey.

For example if the student is facing incorrectly and has trouble figuring out which way to turn to be parallel to the traffic, explain that you are positioning the cane parallel to the traffic and let her feel it. Then let her turn herself until she is parallel to the cane (and therefore parallel to the traffic). You may have to first demonstrate how the cane would feel if it were parallel to her, then hold it parallel to the traffic again and have her turn to make it parallel to her. Having students first align themselves to a line that they can touch, rather than an acoustic line, can often help them understand how to align themselves to the acoustical line of traffic sounds. If students have problems understanding this concept with a cane, try it with a wall, asking them to position themselves with the wall beside them, parallel to their line of travel. Once they understand this, they may be able to position themselves parallel to the cane and traffic.

I've been surprised that some students who have difficulty figuring out which way to turn to make themselves parallel to the traffic can nevertheless position a cane parallel to the traffic correctly. This shows that they can hear the traffic and know which way it's going, but they don't know how to turn their body to align with it. That is when it is most effective to use a cane or rod because they can practice turning for alignment using the cane as a physical line, rather than using the acoustical line of traffic sounds. Once this is mastered, they transfer the skill to aligning with traffic sounds.

The cane can also be helpful to explain to students why a vehicle that is on the street beside them could sound like it is ahead of or behind them. Hold the cane horizontally beside them (parallel to their line of travel) and let them feel that the cane is at their side. As they move their hand along the cane, they can feel that even though the cane is beside them, it extends ahead of and behind them, just as the traffic does on the street beside them.

Return to March 1999 WOMA newsletter article, "Teaching the Use of Hearing".
Return to Teaching the Cane and Non-Visual Skills
Return to Street Crossing
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