How Parents Can Over Overcome Their Child’s Fear of Driving
If you are over 40, like myself, you doubtless have small recollection of when your parents first taught you to drive. My dad refused to take me out driving, so when I took Summer Driver Education in Cedar Rapids, IA, genuinely I did not feel very confident. My mom offered to be the instructor instead. It seems to me others had been behind the wheel for years, even if I knew that was not likely being only 15. Yet, I felt this longing to excel in it, and was excited when the course was over and I could look for my first car.
These days, many students do not seem as enthusiastic as my classmates were back in 1983. Many apprentice even wait until they are 18 years ancient to start driving, never getting any formal schooling except for the practice they receive with their own parents. Some take Driver Education with horror tales to tell. They go into detail how their parents yell at them or “freak out” when they go a small too quick or slow. Consequently, when the instructor is behind the wheel with those students, the apprentice is petrified and often makes silly mistakes, like looking over the incorrect shoulder to change lanes or forgetting to signal.
Consequently, there are some fantastic tips for you as a parent can use to help your child develop the confidence and skills needed to safely drive a vehicle. These are:
- Do not over-criticize. When your child does something incorrect or perilous, calmly tell him that it can be done an different way, take the wheel, and demonstrate to him.
- Start with the basics first. Right ways of rotary the wheel and right of way are very basic skills that will be stressed repeatedly in Driver Education. Help them buy those skills first before worrying about parallel parking or high speed drills.
- Start in a non-threatening environment, like a local parking lot or a silent residential area. Then, as your child develops those basic skills, progressively go him to more traffic and more complex drills.
- Finally, call attention to those skills he does well, and bring up what he needs to work on the next time you drive with him. Make a list of strengths and weaknesses, and work on each list repeatedly, with a few different ways to help him on rising those weaker skills. At the end, have him rate himself. Question him “What is it YOU feel you need to work on?” Be consistent. Tell him you will drive with him for a period of two months, three times per week. By the end of the second month, you will have developed a safety-minded, strong, and confident driver. Drive safely!
Brian S. Lynch is the Inventor/Owner of Mr. Tutor Mobile Lessons Benefit LLC in Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, Iowa. For more in rank on driver education, visit http://www.mobiletutorservice.com.
Author: Brian Lynch
Condition Source: EzineArticles.com
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