Yield! Proceed With Caution When Teaching Your Teens How To Drive

November 11th, 2014  |  Auto Insurance

So you want to help teach your teen how to drive. Are you sure about that? The way that driving is taught today is very different than when you learned how to drive. In fact, there are even a number of strategies and driving techniques that have changed, and if you are not aware of the updated techniques you could be giving out dated advice that could confuse your teen and even potentially cause them to fail their driving test – Not a situation you want to experience.

Parents Driving Records and Advice Impact Their Children’s Driving

Parents play a larger role than they think when it comes to teaching their teens how to drive. "Research shows that children's driving records are related to the records of their parents," says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

IIHS data backs up these claims:

• Teens whose parents had three or more crashes on their records were 22 percent more likely to crash at least once when compared with teens whose parents had no crashes
• Children whose parents had three or more violations on their records were 38 percent more likely to have a violation on their own records compared with teens whose parents had none.

Source: Wrong Way! 5 Outdated Driving Tips Parents Teach Teens

When done right, parental involvement can have a positive impact on your teens driving skills. As outlined on teendriversource.org, parents play a major role in helping their teens build confidence behind the wheel, develop good driving habits, and become safe and effective drivers:

• Teens who say their parents set rules and pay attention to their activities in a helpful, supportive way are half as likely to crash.
• Parenting style matters, according to teens, and it may save lives by lowering crash risk.  
• Teen drivers with involved parents are twice as likely to wear seat belts.
• 87% of teens report having a parent involved in driver training and education.
• 4 in 10 teens are taught only by their parents.

8 Tips for Teaching Your Teens How To Drive

While enrolling your teen in a reputable driving school to be taught how to drive by a professional driving instructor is perhaps the best approach, parents still will play a significant role in their teens driving skill development.

Here are some important tips for teaching your child how to drive:

1. Be patient – Your teen is a new driver.
2. Accept the fact that your teen will make mistakes
3. Be open and honest – create an environment where your teen can ask you anything about driving
4. Stay positive and offer constructive criticism
5. Avoid contradicting what your teen is taught in driving school
6. Take them driving frequently – the more time they spend driving, the more comfortable they will become, and the quicker they will develop their skills
7. Take a collaborative approach – avoid being an authoritarian
8. Lead by example – if you have poor driving habits, your teens will likely pick them up as well

Learn More About Teaching Teens How To Drive

You and Your Teen Driver – Working As A Team

Isn’t Your Teen Worth It?

5 Ways To Help Your Teen Learn To Drive                     

Did you teach your teens how to drive? What type of approach did you take? What advice would you offer to other parents about to teach their teens how to drive?