likedcalico wrote:
I have problems judging distance. I might think an object is closer to me than it really is or its further away than it really is. When I'm even driving I might even think I'm going to hit something so I refuse to back up any further or keep on turning without backing up some more to get out of a parking space. On the bus I have even thought the bus drive was going to hit a car in front of us while she was turning.
likedcalico wrote:
When I was with my boyfriend I have thought a few times the side of his car was going to hit a mailbox or a road sign (while we were delivering papers) because he was so close to the edge of the road. A couple times he would deliberately drive close to an object seeing if I’d think he was going to hit it or not. He told me it was a sensory issue. Is it?
I'm the same way, which is why I don't drive. Never thought about WHY I perceive being in a vehicle this way, no one ever asked/paid attention/considered it worthy of investigation. I trust my boyfriend & know he's a good driver-though can't say the same of all the others around us-but the point is, I still am terrified every time we're in the car. We're moving-that makes me feel ill already. We're near edges of other moving things-that's suspensefully
not fun. Turning, making quick decisions, judging who's gonna' go where when at an intersection-all that's
way beyond me.
Haven't got that built-in estimation capacity that some humans possess-my father could, I'd always marvel at how he could look at (or remember) a distance and assign it a measurement. I can do math fine, but have no sense as to how close or distant something is, other than the imprecision of "near" & "far". Can't look at a person & guess their height, weight or age, can't look at a sidewalk and tell you how many feet 'til the next block. Only reason I even have an idea of how many miles the last ride I took in the car was, or how long it took to leave & return, is from road signs & clocks that inform me-can't guess amounts (quantity of units) of time or distance other than with the vague terms "much" or "little"-based on my subjective irrational perceptions.
Putting the math together with the "word problems" (circumstances in which one would use math) one encounters in the environment is the difficulty. No way to apply the math, because I look and I don't see what or however people with "estimation ability" do, the surroundings aren't giving me feedback that helps me measure. Only variations on "safe" or "unsafe" (whether emotionally or physically).
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*"I don't know what it is, but I know what it isn't."*