Are you a parent or a legal guardian, and are you thinking of how you will teach your child to drive? If you are interested, we are here to help you with tips for teaching your teenager.
Before your teens get the required knowledge to hit the open road on their own, you, as a parent, should take responsibility for making them qualified drivers.
Learning to drive from a parent is a rite of passage and a safe and significant inheritance.
With intense research from numerous areas, we have prepared the best 6 tips for teaching your teenagers to drive.
Let’s drive in.
Top 6 Tips on How to Teach Your Teenager to Drive
1. Be a Good Example
Your teens are looking unto you as a good example. They are taking note of everything you do when they are around especially driving.
So, it’s better to follow speed limits, use your car’s blinkers properly, maintain the required distance in traffic, and check mirrors.
In a few words, you should do what you anticipate them to do. Furthermore, you can also verbally explain to them every step you take while driving and why you did it.
2. Lesson Plan
Before the lessons begin, systematically plan what concepts and skills you will focus on throughout the lesson days. You can start them with essential driving skills like making good left-hand turns and adhering to basic road signs, markings, and signals.
By planning to tackle driving maneuvers that are easier first, your teens will build the comfort and confidence needed to cover the remaining more challenging tasks. Moreover, after the driver feels excellent, you can move to a more complicated skill like parking parallel.
3. Carefully Pick the Suitable Location
When teaching a teen, you must find a place where your teen will have a lot of space to avoid colliding with barriers. Avoid choosing places like highways and where people are present when your teen is behind the wheel.
The best place to choose is an empty parking lot. This will enable your teen to accustomably start, stop and turn the car without getting involved in a crash.
To make your teen more professional, you can bring cones representing other cars, side streets, and stimulate lanes.
4. Ensure You Are Kind While Teaching
For teens, driving for the first time is an experience that may sometimes be nerve-wracking. As a parent, you should help them ease the stress of confusion and keep them focused on the road.
To be helpful and kind to your teens while they are driving, you should have meaningful feedbacks that should be educative, timely, sensitive to your teen’s needs, and able to answer key questions.
Don’t keep on swearing, yelling, and whining to your child in case of any simple mistakes or showing any changes. New drivers like your teen can’t focus when jumpy, angry, or overwhelmed. Don’t let your teen lose interest; you know how important driving is.
Furthermore, focus on being ready to physically point out changing conditions, pedestrians, oncoming traffic, and anything that will change how they drive. You can also gift your teen driver when they master a certain driving skill you have taught them. This reward will motivate them.
5. Practice Often
“Practice practice make perfect,” so don’t lose hope in your child. Keep taking your teen for a driving lesson; catching up will be easy.
Once you get distracted by other activities and miss your child’s lessons, your child may get accustomed and forget almost everything. It will be like you have done nothing to improve your teen driving skills.
When you practice as frequently as possible, several times a week, your child will catch up quickly and retain everything.
6. Take Your Teen as Your Fellow Adult
Teaching your child is the most challenging person to train as a parent. Parents are there to control their teen’s behaviors, especially maintaining their safety.
But since driving is an activity for adults, you should equalize yourself with the person behind the wheel because you have no control over the car. To be a meaningful driving instructor, you should respect and take your teen as your fellow adult while he’s driving.
Doing this will create a peaceful environment without high emotions and keep the teenager on track when driving and receiving your feedback.
Can I Teach My Child To Drive Without a Permit?
It is illegal because if you start taking your child to road lessons without having your teen go through a test and get a learner’s permit, the two of you may be arrested.
As long as you and your teen have not caused anything extraordinary, you will only face a few minor penalties and fines. You can avoid this by taking your teen to a NY DMV office for a learner’s permit test.
How Many Driving Lessons Does a Beginner Need NY?
Before qualifying for the actual road test at NY DMV, you should at least have completed 50 hours while practicing with an experienced person above 21 and take at least 15 hours of night lessons.
You can only be taken through the driving lessons by your guardian, parent, or driving instructor.
What Age Can You Learn to Drive In New York?
In New York, at the age of 16, you are legally allowed to drive a car, but it’s quite a long process for teens. As a teen, driving on your own is significantly challenging but exciting.
But before you start driving, you will need to get a learner’s permit that requires you to do a theory test to understand New York traffic rules and laws of the road.
How Do I Know When My Teen Is Ready To Drive Alone?
It comes at a time when your teen wants to drive alone and feels like a pro. They will show some noticeable signs, like being super confident, dedicating safe commitment, good judgment, adhering to rules, good highway driving, checking mirrors, and wearing seatbelts.
Final Remarks
Becoming an instructor to your teen is not an easy process for every parent; it needs hard work, kindness, and focus on any changes that might suddenly occur.
But with the help of this article and your interest as a parent or guardian, you can quickly become a dedicated instructor to your teen and expect fine results from the driving lessons.
Finally, you will feel proud and excited about your hard work when your child drives a car without instructions.