Section 4: Teaching to determine crossable gaps --
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Using HEARING or VISION -- Which is better to
Determine when it is "clear to cross"?
Teaching students to choose vision or hearing to detect vehicles
We've already talked about teaching students to use their hearing and teaching them to use their vision to detect vehicles.
For students who have both vision and hearing it can be helpful for them to learn to use their hearing for crossing streets separately from learning to use their vision, and vice versa (for an example, you can read Vignette 4 -- Using vision and hearing).
After students know how to use their vision and how to use their hearing effectively, you can give them experience at a variety of crossing situations.
At each situation, you can ask them to determine whether it is a Situation of Uncertainty and if not, whether they can reliably detect all the approaching vehicles in that situation better with vision or with hearing.
Once they make their judgment, have them measure warning times of approaching vehicles while using their vision and again while using their hearing, and give them feedback as to whether they judged correctly that their vision or their hearing was more effective in that situation.
Make sure the students have experience in
- situations in which they can see the traffic better than they can hear it,
- situations in which they can hear the traffic better than they can see it, and
- Situations of Uncertainty in which neither their vision nor their hearing is good enough.
The Checklist Using Vision & Hearing may be helpful to document the experiences of the student.