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Strategies to Improve Spatial Orientation
Following are general strategies to help individuals who have difficulties with spatial disorientation:
- Environmental restructuring may be the most effective compensatory treatment for individuals with Weaknesses in spatial orientation. For instance, the home and work environment should be consistently arranged and clutter minimized. Materials should be consistently kept in one place (e.g., keys in a slot by the door, wallet by the lamp in the bedroom, etc.). Labels should also be used to help orient the individual (e.g., signs for rooms, cabinets for dishes, and glasses, drawers for different tools, etc.).
- Individuals with orientation difficulties will also benefit from practicing manipulating materials, estimating distances, and visualizing the orientation of objects from various viewpoints.
- Tactile-kinesthetic (e.g., touching, sensing body position) input can be especially effective for improving the estimation of short distances and the relative orientation of objects and points. Having the individual assemble objects and puzzles likely will be more beneficial than more passive techniques.
- Activities can include estimating distance or relative orientations, along with immediate feedback and correction.
- Any computerized rehabilitation-orientated software programs incorporate spatial orientation remedial activities, however, the transfer of abilities to other contexts is generally questionable.
- The use of measuring equipment may be effective, especially for continued vocational and recreational activities. Measuring devices (i.e., ruler, protractor) may be incorporated into templates, transparent overlays, or integrated into the desktop. The individual may be taught compensatory strategies to organize materials in ways that allow for efficient comparison or quantification.
- The individual may benefit from external cues to assist with the use of measuring tools and reminders to use strategies that may be helpful in a particular situation. Safety considerations may dictate rearrangement of the home or work environment to remove objects that may protrude or otherwise result in injury related to poor spatial orientation abilities. It is often the case that activities (i.e., operation of vehicles, power tools, appliances) will need to be restricted for the patient's safety, as well as for the safety of others.
- Many individuals with difficulties in spatial orientation experience significant difficulties getting lost in their community, planning trips, or reading maps. For people with such deficits in route finding, it is ideal to practice route finding skills in their own house, neighborhood, vocational setting, and recreational environments. As most individuals can understand, being lost carries intense emotional reactions. Therefore, the individual should be accompanied during route finding activities to reduce anxiety and panic feelings, as well as to ensure that anxiety management strategies are taught.
- Verbal cuing (e.g., "Which street are you looking for?") can be extremely effective to help the affected individual think through choices and develop or redevelop effective strategies to negotiate through environments.
- Training with the use of maps is common as they assist individuals plan trips, and are a reliable way to problem solve when individuals are topographically disoriented. Specific map reading and orienting skills may need to be taught as the individual may not have even possessed these skills prior to the visual-spatial dysfunction. Enlarged maps can be constructed, upon which the individual can walk a representation of the original sized map.
- If left-right disorientation is problematic, the individual may need to wear a bracelet that indicates one of the directions.
- The provision of written directions may be most effective for individuals with persistent spatial relationship deficits. Training may include learning to transpose information from a map to step-by step written directions.
- In many, cases the individual will function most reliably if he or she can negotiate from one visible landmark to the next. In this manner, the reliance on topographical directions can be minimized, and existing cues (i.e., signs and buildings) can be maximized.
- In the home and other frequented environments, the use of personalized signs can be implemented.
- The individual can be instructed how to effectively ask for assistance, how to request directions in the most personally effective format, and how to best record the information in light of his or her personal strengths and weaknesses.
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