Best Practice
Best Practices
Your involvement will include:
- Managing the learning process through each stage
- Creating a written agreement between you and your teen with clearly defined exceptions, restrictions, and consequences.
- Supervising the driving practice during permit phase
- Identifying objectives for success during hazards associated with each phase
- Talking to your teen’s Driver Education instructor about resources including apps to help you through the learning process.
Teaching a child to drive can be a nerve-wracking but rewarding experience for both parents and teens. Here are ten best practices parents can follow to ensure a safe and effective learning process:
1. Start with the Basics: Begin by familiarizing your child with the vehicle's controls, such as the steering wheel, pedals, and indicators, before moving onto the road.
2. Choose Suitable Locations: Begin practicing in quiet, low-traffic areas like empty parking lots or residential streets before progressing to busier roads.
3. Lead by Example: Demonstrate safe driving behaviors by consistently following traffic laws, wearing seatbelts, and avoiding distractions while behind the wheel.
4. Proactive Communication: Communicate potential hazards and your thought process to your child throughout the driving lessons. This will help them to learn what to identify as potential hazards in the future.
5. Practice Defensive Driving: Emphasize the importance of anticipating potential hazards, staying vigilant, and maintaining a safe following distance from other vehicles.
6. Introduce Various Driving Conditions: Gradually expose your child to different driving conditions, including different weather conditions, nighttime driving, and highway driving, under your supervision.
7. Teach Decision-Making Skills: Help your child develop critical decision-making skills by discussing scenarios they may encounter on the road and guiding them on how to react safely.
8. Address Distractions: Stress the dangers of distractions, such as texting, eating, or adjusting the radio, and encourage your child to stay focused solely on driving while behind the wheel.
9. Practice Patience and Encouragement: Remain patient and supportive, acknowledging your child's progress and offering encouragement to boost their confidence as they gain experience.
10. Gradual Progression: Gradually increase the complexity of driving tasks as your child becomes more comfortable and proficient behind the wheel, always prioritizing safety above all else.
Remember that teaching a child to drive is a gradual process, and each individual will progress at their own pace. By following these best practices and prioritizing safety, parents can help instill good driving habits and prepare their child for a lifetime of safe driving.
Here are six common driving mistakes that new drivers often make, along with interventions parents can take to help them correct these errors:
1. Speeding: New drivers may exceed speed limits due to lack of experience or excitement, which can lead to accidents and traffic violations.
Intervention: Parents can set clear speed limits for different road conditions and encourage their child to adhere to them. Additionally, they can model responsible driving behavior by driving within the speed limit themselves.
2. Overcorrecting Steering: New drivers may overcorrect their steering when attempting to maintain their lane position or make adjustments, resulting in erratic driving behavior and potential loss of control.
Intervention: Parents can teach their child to make smooth, gradual steering adjustments and avoid overreacting to minor deviations from their intended path. They can provide guidance on maintaining a relaxed grip on the steering wheel and practicing smooth steering inputs during driving practice.
3. Following Too Closely: New drivers may tailgate other vehicles, failing to maintain a safe following distance, which increases the risk of rear-end collisions.
Intervention: Parents can teach their child about the three-second rule for maintaining a safe following distance and encourage them to apply it in real-world driving situations. They can also model proper following distances during driving lessons and provide feedback on their child's following habits.
4. Failure to Check Blind Spots: New drivers may overlook checking their blind spots before changing lanes or making turns, increasing the risk of collisions. Intervention: Parents can emphasize the importance of shoulder checking by providing verbal reminders during practice sessions and demonstrating the proper technique themselves.
5. Neglecting Turn Signal Usage: New drivers may forget to use turn signals when changing lanes, making turns, or merging into traffic, which can lead to confusion and potential accidents.
Intervention: Parents can emphasize the importance of using turn signals to indicate their intentions to other drivers and pedestrians. They can remind their child to activate turn signals well in advance of making any maneuvers and reinforce this habit during driving practice sessions.
6. Improper Parking Techniques: New drivers may struggle with parking properly, including parallel parking, perpendicular parking, or parking within designated spaces.
Intervention: Parents can provide commentary driving techniques to walk the student through a step-by-step process to complete a park and talk about the hazards of leaving a parking space.
By addressing these additional common mistakes and implementing targeted interventions, parents can help new drivers develop the skills, knowledge, and habits necessary for safe and confident driving