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How to Teach Your Teen to Drive

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In our time, not only boys, but also girls, can already pester their parents with questions when they can start driving a car. Another question which bothers the parents, is what age is suitable for learning to drive a car safely and whether it is necessary to wait until your child pushes 16 or 18. The answer is - no, there’s no need to wait till adolescence to start teaching your child basic driving skills. Some professionals even claim that it is possible to deliver the first driving lessons to the children starting from the early age. For little kids it would be interesting to drive a toy car - there are plenty of them on the market and you can choose the one you really like.

As for teenagers, for example, there are many other opportunities. For example, you can take your child to a karting site. At first glance, this hobby may seem frivolous - after all, karts are much smaller in size than conventional cars. Nevertheless, karting causes a very special, incomparable feeling. This adrenaline rush rarely happens during an ordinary trip. But most importantly, this hobby is very useful for both experienced motorists, and for those who are only going to get the driver’s license. Strange as it may seem, the main benefit of karting is that it develops analytical thinking. During the race, the pilot's brain constantly processes many tasks and, it needs to be done very quickly. Due to this, the reaction rate increases noticeably. And every car owner knows all about the benefits of this quality. In addition, karting increases physical endurance and improves coordination of movements. Of course, it is advisable to accompany the children during their first trip. The skills obtained during karting are really useful. The teens will become calmer, more confident, psychologically and physically more enduring. It is especially useful at least from time to time to go karting for those who are just about to acquire their own car.

Another way to teach your child to drive a car is to resort to various stimulators.

Today there are many home and professional driving simulators. The most popular of them are: ADrive, City Car Driving, 3D Instructor. With their help your child can learn a lot of driving skills.

What do modern simulators offer:

- Intensive and diverse traffic in a large city, the presence of intersections and interchanges;

- Detailed study of roads: circular movements, bridges, tunnels, railway crossings, speed bumps;

- Variety of roads: city streets, highways, country roads;

- Different situations on the roads, including rare and unusual;

- Choice of weather conditions: cloudy and clear weather, rain, fog, ice, etc.;

- Choice of the time of day: morning, evening, day, night.

Time does not stand still, simulators are constantly updated with new options, simplifying the process of learning driving. Therefore, it is worth keeping an eye on updates.

Teen car accidents statistics presented on the website of Oshawa injury lawyers state that teen collision rate is on the rise. That is why parents must pay a lot of time to child's driver education. If parents want their children to drive safely and avoid car accidents, they should show an example. There’s no need to explain to your child that it is necessary to fasten a seatbelt if you don’t buckle up yourself. The reason is simple - all children copy their parents, and during the adolescence they usually do not pay attention to words - only to the memorized rules of behavior. Dads, who often want to look cool in their teenage children’s eyes, prefer to drive at high speed, aggressively and so on. So the teenager will drive aggressively, even if you tell them many times that this is only possible for experienced drivers. Remember, that there is parent's responsibility for a teen driver's car accident. A teenager will learn to drive safely only if they see safe driving from childhood.

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