How to teach your child to drive

Take your time 

Don’t advance too quickly. A bad experience in an environment your young driver wasn’t ready for can ruin their confidence and set progress back months. Tick off the competencies as each has been repeatedly achieved – starting with learning to start, stop and steer safely in quiet areas without traffic before moving on to applying newly learned skills on low-speed roads with little traffic. 

Get them comfortable behind the wheel

Your first-time driver may have only used pedals on a PlayStation game and have no idea how sensitive the accelerator and brake pedals can be. Give them time to feel comfortable with the pedals before taking off for the first time.

Point to where you want them to go

A person will steer to where they are looking. Especially learners. If a parent says “watch the parked car”, it’s guaranteed to make them head for it. Point to where you want them to go.

Mix it up

Get your young driver to experience all possible scenarios while you’re there to help – including short and long drives, regional and metro including CBD. Add complexity such as noisy passengers, music and varied weather, and drive different cars including front and rear and all-wheel drive.

Talk about road safety

Make road safety a discussion point around the table when the news focuses on another collision or a new vehicle safety option. Don’t underestimate the importance of such discussions.

Don’t change lanes

Almost all learners slow down to do lane changes. Get them on to a main road and tell them: “We are not going to do a lane change, but I want you to tell me when it’s safe to do so”. This makes it easier to maintain a steady speed as they know they are not actually going to do a lane change, and breaks the stress into two parts.

Set a good example

Lead by example. Young drivers mimic our behaviour and will drive in a similar manner, particularly once on their provisional licence. But they don’t have the depth of knowledge, skill and experience to survive an error in judgement.

Challenge them

As your learner progresses, move them on to more challenging routes that are more than ‘just a drive’ to help them build confidence and replicate the conditions they will face as a licensed driver.

Book lessons to learn the basics 

Get professional lessons to introduce your learner to driving and help you work through key milestones so that the 120 hours are meaningful.