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.

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.

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.

Parking a car is something that many people don’t master during a lifetime, so be patient with your student, especially when it comes to reverse parking. Teach him how to reverse the car while watching the rear view window at the same time – many learner drivers find this frightening.

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.

Finally, while learning to drive the student also has to be prepared for driving in adverse conditions, like rain, bad light, snowstorms etc. A training video could be very helpful in this regard – you can watch it together and discuss the appropriate reaction to the different situations.

Tags: Auto

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