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...
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.
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.
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.
For an experienced drive it comes naturally to slow down when approaching a curve in the road. This is not so for a new driver. He first has to develop a feeling for how the car reacts when applying the brakes at different speeds, and might go into his first curve way to fast. Another thing that does not come naturally is to slow down some distance from a stop sign and gently apply the brakes. And pulling away from a stop street while there is oncoming traffic in the distance is terrifying to many new drivers. So discuss this with him before you venture into traffic, preparing him mentally for what is to come.
People walking across the street, bicycles and other cars swerving right in front of you, and if you are in India, cows grazing on the side of the road is something else that can cause a learner driver to react in a way that nobody expected, with disastrous consequences. Once again talk about this with him before the time, ask him how he would react, and then discuss that.
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.
Author Resource:
topgear offer driving lessons anniesland and there is more iformation about driving lessons in anniesland at www.topgeardrivingtuition.com
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