If you are like most parents, you spend the majority of your child's life trying to keep them safe. Unfortunately, there are not too many times that feel more unsafe as when they get ready to drive. With car accidents being the leading cause of deaths for 15-19 year olds, you want to ensure that your child has the skills and abilities they need to undertake this momentous milestone. Not only will some of these skills help to prevent potential accidents once they get behind the wheel, but they will also help them to pass their drivers exam on their first try.
Assist Your Child In Getting Their Driving Permit
In most states across the country, most teens under the age of 18 are required to obtain a drivers permit prior to being issued a driver's license. Although each state has their own requirements for teen drivers to do this, it is in your teen's best interest for you to assist them with getting their drivers or learners permit as soon as they are eligible. This may be as soon as they turn 14 if you live in South Dakota, and as late as 16 if you live in New York or several other states.
In order to be eligible for their permit, they may be required to do a certain number of hours with a drivers education teacher or as a part of some type of driving school program. Once they have their permit, they will be able to practice their skills while they are in the vehicle with you or other qualified drivers. Time spent behind the wheel allows your child to not only learn the rules of the road, but it also allows them to become comfortable and confident as a driver.
Identify Critical And Immediate Fail Errors That Your Child May Be Making
When supervising your child's practice time behind the wheel, some of the things that you want to identify and help them to work on are critical and immediate fail errors they will encounter when taking their road tests. These are errors that will not only increase their risk of having an accident when they are driving alone, but could also result in them failing their drivers license exam.
Critical errors are those that do not result in immediate danger to others or property. Some of these include:
- Not following the speed limit
- Not using signal lights
- Failing to check mirrors, blind-spots, and potential traffic
- Rolling stop signs
- Hitting the curb
- Dropping off the side of the road
- Turning into the wrong lane and more
Immediate fail errors are those that could result in an accident or injury to the driver, another person, or property. Some of these include:
- Failing to yield the right of way
- Excessive speeding
- Distracted driving
- Stopping in dangerous positions
- Failing to stop
- Failing to follow instructions
- Collisions with any type of objects and others
Make Sure They Are Ready For The DMV Written Test
In most states the DMV written test is a timed exam that is made up of multiple choice questions that cover the basic rules of the road that your child needs to know in order to drive. Your child may be tempted to attempt to study for this as they would other exams in school. Depending on your child's personality, their study skills may range from cramming for the exam to methodical passive learning. Unfortunately, both of these ways have been shown to be some of the worst ways to retain the material they are attempting to learn.
A better way to ensure that your child retains the material is to help them be active learners. Make sure that they not only review and learn the rules of the road, but be prepared to discuss these rules when they are practicing their driving. Get them to identify, demonstrate, and talk through the rules as they are using them.
Encourage them to repeatedly go through the free online practice exams for your specific state. This will not only help them learn what to expect on the DMV exam, but the exposure to the potential questions may also help to reduce any test taking anxiety that your child may experience.
Even if your child gets their drivers license on their first try, this does not mean that you have to set them free behind the wheel if they are not ready. By working with your child throughout this process, you will have a feel for their skill level. Do not allow them to drive without supervision until you are comfortable that they can do this safely. For more information on this topic, check out a site like http://www.a1peckdrivingschool.com.
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