Learning To Drive: How To Make It Easier For Your Son Or Daughter.
Remember the agony you went through when you got behind the steering wheel of your dad’s car for the first time? Your hands were trembling when you buckled the safety belt. You could hardly press the button to adjust the mirrors (or maybe in those days you had to open the window and do it manually). And to switch on the engine felt like your were activating a monster that would propel you right through the garage wall and into outer space.
The information below is so you can help your teenage son or daughter to go through a little less stress when he/she is learning to drive. Of course it’s also useful to protect you from serious bodily harm during the whole process…
An important tip is to concentrate on teaching the student one skill at a time. This will take a lot of stress out of the situation. A good starting point, before they even switch on the car, is to make sure they know the location and function of all the major controls. It can be fatal if they should ever get in an emergency situation, and don’t know how to switch on the headlights, or where the emergency brake is. Make sure they know every single control, and can find it with their eyes closed. This can save a life in future.
Secondly, remember that practice makes perfect. Even if your student can’t wait to get going, let him practice all the basic skills over and over. Once again, in an emergency situation they have to react instinctively. There is no time to think what your next step should be. Let them practice in an empty parking lot after hours.
Starting off with parking skills is not a bad idea. This will give the student a feeling for how the car reacts to turning the wheel, braking etc. Reverse parking is never easy for a learner driver, so let him practice this many times over, even if he gets bored.
Something else that does not come naturally to a new drive is to slow down BEFORE you get to a curve, and how far from a stop sign you have to start slowing down and apply the brakes. Discuss this with him before you even leave the parking area and venture into traffic. One of the most terrifying experiences for a learner drive is to stop at a stop street, and then pull away while there is a car coming in the distance. It is therefore better to practice this after hours, in a quiet part of town.
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.
The final step, and something many instructors fail to do, is to prepare someone who is learning to drive for conditions that does not happen every day, but when they do can cause him to make fatal mistakes. Driving in bad light or at night, or when it’s raining or snowing, or where there are road works needs special skills and the ability to keep a clear head and make instant decisions. It’s a good idea to get a training video and watch this with your student. Discuss the reaction of the driver in the video to different circumstances, and whether that was the best way to respond and why.
topgear offer driving instructors anniesland and there is more iformation about driving lessons in anniesland at www.topgeardrivingtuition.com