Learning To Drive: How You Can Help Your Teenage Child With This
Do you still remember the angst you went through when your father allowed you to get behind the steering wheel of his car for the first time? How your hands trembled when you fastened the safety belt? How you pressed the wrong button to adjust the rear-view mirror? When you turned the key for the first time, and you heard the sound of the engine coming alive, you wanted to jump out and run, but a strange excitement kept you glued to the seat.
Below we give some information so you can make this time of his/her life a little less daunting and a lot more fun for your teenage son or daughter.
A crucial tip is not to try and do everything at once. If you take it one skill at a time, it will take a lot of the tension out of the process for him. It's very important that you should not allow the student to drive the car under any circumstances before he is fully trained in the position and function of all the major controls of the car. It can cause his death if he should one day end up in a crisis, and can't remember how to switch on the lights, or where to switch on the windscreen wipers. Also make sure he knows the rules of road by heart before switching on the car for the first time.
After that, take him to an empty parking lot after hours, and start practicing. And practicing is the word. As far as learning a skill like driving is concerned, practice really makes perfect. So even if he complains non-stop, make him practice all the basic things over and over.
Beginning your lesson with parking skills is a good idea. This will help the learner to develop a feeling for how the car responds to what he does - at a slow, manageable speed. Reversing the car and making use of the rear view mirror at the same time is a scary experience the first time round, so let him practice this many times. Then let him try reverse parking. Some of us never learn to do this properly, so now is your chance to make sure he is not one of them.
I will never forget approaching the first curve I encountered in the road at a speed that must have scared my father brainless, because I can still hear his shouts: "Slow down!..... Slow Dooooooown!" It takes time to get a feeling for the way in which a car responds to different road conditions and speeds, and to applying the brakes - especially when you have already entered a curve. Stopping at a stop street should not involve driving right up to the stop sign and then stepping on the brakes. None of this is obvious to a new driver, so discuss this with him before he encounters the actual circumstances.
Another thing that is very scary is knowing how to deal with people walking across the road, bicycles moving right in front of you, and other cars changing lanes without warning. This can be life threatening if your child should panic and do something stupid, so discuss this with him before actually venturing into the traffic, and start off where you will encounter this, but not on a bewildering scale.
Something that few driving schools or instructors concentrate on, is to prepare the student for unusual circumstances and conditions. Driving in the rain or snow, or at night, or where there are road works require particular skill, and you must not lose your presence of mind in such a situation. It's hard to prepare someone for something not even you can foresee, so it's probably a good idea to get a professional driving instruction video that covers this, and to watch it together with your student. You can then discuss the conditions it portrays and what a proper reaction would be under each set of circumstances. This is a better way of learning to drive than losing your life while trying. - 2368
Below we give some information so you can make this time of his/her life a little less daunting and a lot more fun for your teenage son or daughter.
A crucial tip is not to try and do everything at once. If you take it one skill at a time, it will take a lot of the tension out of the process for him. It's very important that you should not allow the student to drive the car under any circumstances before he is fully trained in the position and function of all the major controls of the car. It can cause his death if he should one day end up in a crisis, and can't remember how to switch on the lights, or where to switch on the windscreen wipers. Also make sure he knows the rules of road by heart before switching on the car for the first time.
After that, take him to an empty parking lot after hours, and start practicing. And practicing is the word. As far as learning a skill like driving is concerned, practice really makes perfect. So even if he complains non-stop, make him practice all the basic things over and over.
Beginning your lesson with parking skills is a good idea. This will help the learner to develop a feeling for how the car responds to what he does - at a slow, manageable speed. Reversing the car and making use of the rear view mirror at the same time is a scary experience the first time round, so let him practice this many times. Then let him try reverse parking. Some of us never learn to do this properly, so now is your chance to make sure he is not one of them.
I will never forget approaching the first curve I encountered in the road at a speed that must have scared my father brainless, because I can still hear his shouts: "Slow down!..... Slow Dooooooown!" It takes time to get a feeling for the way in which a car responds to different road conditions and speeds, and to applying the brakes - especially when you have already entered a curve. Stopping at a stop street should not involve driving right up to the stop sign and then stepping on the brakes. None of this is obvious to a new driver, so discuss this with him before he encounters the actual circumstances.
Another thing that is very scary is knowing how to deal with people walking across the road, bicycles moving right in front of you, and other cars changing lanes without warning. This can be life threatening if your child should panic and do something stupid, so discuss this with him before actually venturing into the traffic, and start off where you will encounter this, but not on a bewildering scale.
Something that few driving schools or instructors concentrate on, is to prepare the student for unusual circumstances and conditions. Driving in the rain or snow, or at night, or where there are road works require particular skill, and you must not lose your presence of mind in such a situation. It's hard to prepare someone for something not even you can foresee, so it's probably a good idea to get a professional driving instruction video that covers this, and to watch it together with your student. You can then discuss the conditions it portrays and what a proper reaction would be under each set of circumstances. This is a better way of learning to drive than losing your life while trying. - 2368
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topgear offer driving instructors anniesland and there is more iformation about driving lessons in anniesland at www.topgeardrivingtuition.com
posted by Frank Potter at 12:08 AM
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