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[quote=Anonymous]It depends on the child.

There used to be preschools who made sure that kids knew their parents' first and last names, home phone number, directions to their home from preschool and directions to either a grandparent's home, babysitter's house or some other trusted adult's house, from either the preschool or their home.  When I helped a child learn directions to her grandmother's house, she used landmarks, not signs, because she couldn't read all of the signs (combination of not being able to read all of the big words and not being able to see all of the signs from her carseat).  With that said, if the driver flubbed a single direction, she was lost.  Because directions from home to grandma's house involved a 1 hour trip on the freeway, mom stopped for a potty break mid-way, and the one time that her uncle tried to have her do directions, he got lost because he refused to stop and she got confused.

Most kids can learn directions earlier by using landmarks, and as they start reading, they can incorporate in street names.  Kids don't navigate with cardinal directions well, unless there is a stationary compass installed in the car, in which case they learn to recognize that it should be pointing a certain way for each leg, but they aren't really using it correctly.

The biggest issue is that adults have been getting away from kids learning all of this early, and kids have been allowed to do other things in the car.  If a child isn't allowed toys or screens, they're more likely to pay attention to their surroundings.  If the driver plays games involving finding letters, numbers, items or colors OUTSIDE of the vehicle, kids pay attention to their surroundings.[/quote]

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