Jul 20 / Kate Monk

Why families matter in the learner driver journey

Learning to drive is a team effort

Learning to drive begins long before 17 and well before L-plates make their first appearance. Our learners have been absorbing attitudes, habits, and beliefs from the adults around them for their whole lives. They have watched how vulnerable road users are treated, how mistakes are handled, and how rules are respected (or not) by the people who matter in their lives.

The positive influence a driving instructor has on a new driver lasts for around 6 months, after this - the comforting voice fades and learners fall back on the biases and beliefs learned from their families to help them form their decisions and reactions to events on the road.

With parents being the most invested and influential people in our learners lives, they are in the perfect position to continue the support long after their time with us is passed. But are they fully aware of the risks and how they can help prepare their learner for life beyond the test?
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Drive how you would like your teenager to drive

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It starts with parents taking their own driving more seriously and understanding how they can limit the impact of their own beliefs and reactions to other road users in stressful times on their learners. If a parent has been a little lax with the rules of the road, what can they realistically expect to see their learner driver doing when they are driving solo?

What conversations could instructors have with their learners to help them realise the influence their parents are having on them and what guidance can instructors give to families on broaching the topic with the parents themselves?

Inviting parents to observe a lesson or even better, have a refresher lesson themselves will help iron out bad habits, change attitudes and raise awareness of the risks. It’s not going to appeal to everyone but instructors have the skills, the rapport and the opportunity to get families thinking.

Speak up

Encourage your learners to speak up if they ever find themselves in a position where a driver is acting dangerously, or distracted or they are not comfortable with how the car is being driven.

Practice ways that your learner can speak up and make parents aware that they also need to have these practice sessions.

It may well be that learners have to call out their parents with speeding or mobile phone use, but this is great practice and will help your learner develop the confidence they need to stay safe with friends.

The importance of variety

Driving instructors are under no obligation to work late or offer night time driving and for many, it is not an logistical option. But conversations with learners and newly qualified drivers suggest that driving in the dark is something that they feel least prepared for with the latest statistic showing that a higher proportion of crashes happen in the early hours.

Guiding families and friends to take on extra private practice in challenging light and weather conditions is vital to help learners gain experience which, is particularly true for young male drivers.

“Although males aged 17-20 are 7 times more likely to be involved in a collision than all male drivers, between 2am and 5am, their risk is 17 times higher.” ROSPA

Dr Liz Box’s latest research has proven that quality private practice offering variety on the roads over quantity of hours is the key to exposing our new drivers to enough scenarios that they are then able to build their reactions post test.

Rural roads, lanes, late nights, twilight and soggy drives must be repeatedly covered and doing it with an instructor is not always possible whether it be our availability or cost prohibitive.
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Guided private practice

What is the purpose of private practice? With families often not having any driver training since their own test passes, practicing outside of lessons needs to be just that. Practice. Families should focus on practicing what has been learned that week, building confidence in the skills that have been introduced and applying them in a variety of different conditions. My Learner Driver supports this with bite size lessons in awareness, skills and knowledge that can be set as homework between sessions.

How do parents keep up to date with what has been worked on in the last lesson? I imagine that there are some instructors who regularly communicate with families but that on the whole, many instructors prefer to keep families and partners at arms reach and only interact with them via the learner. Whatever the approach, keeping good notes that can either be read by parents through a diary management app, on paper, in person or via messages is vital.

Being more proactive in setting home work and suggesting areas and skills to practice will help engage families with the process and support progress with learning. Even for families who cannot supervise learners, there is so much that a learner driver can gain from the passenger seat, with the right guidance.

My Learner Driver

Built by parents for families- so you know exactly what you need to know to make sure your learner is really ready for driving solo.
Creating a toolkit that compliments what is offered in driving lessons but provides structure to private practice and raises awareness around the reality of the risks our new drivers are facing is why My Learner Driver exists.

Being able to set home work even if it’s just from the passenger seat, support families in developing a plan to manage the post test pass and improving standards not just in learner driving, but within the whole family are the foundations it has been built on. 
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