Parent as Driving Supervisor

You don't need to have professional experience to teach your teenager to drive. It is more important for you to be there as a guide as he or she practices. You can monitor your son or daughter's progress, gradually moving on to more complex driving situations when he or she is ready.

If you or your child don't feel comfortable starting out on your own, consider some professional lessons to kick things off. You may even want to join your teen on the lesson to observe how the instructor teaches basic driving tasks.

It's important to map out a plan ahead of time to give your teen the chance to master both basic skills, such as managing a vehicle in traffic, and more complex skills, such as learning safe following and stopping distances and how to constantly scan road conditions. Discuss driving lesson goals with your child and lay them out in a parent/teen driving agreement.

Except for the first few hours devoted to helping your teen master the basics, it's best to practice in everyday situations. Have your teen drive with you everywhere you go together. These normal, day-to-day situations provide the variety needed to help your teen become a safe driver.

Before the learner's permit
It’s never too early to start teaching your child about being safe passenger, and preparing them to be a safe driver.

Research shows that parents should start talking to children about safe driving behaviors by 12. It’s around this time that kids become more likely to ride with someone other than their parents- often a teenaged driver. Unfortunately, this is also the age at which researchers see a spike in the number of child passenger deaths, which continues to increase with each teenaged year.

Model safe driving behavior and talk to your son or daughter about what it means to be a safe driver and passenger long before they get into the driver’s seat themselves.

Be a good role model
Practice what you preach. Be sure to use safe driving behaviors for your child to model. There are plenty of "teachable moments" for you to talk about safe driving with your adolescent, each time you ride in the car together.

Drive home the message on distractions:

Point out unsafe driving behaviors, such as talking on a cell phone.
Teach your child that it's OK to tell passengers, "Please don't distract me while I'm driving."
Pull over to use your cell phone or have a passenger answer it instead.
Don't change CDs or the radio or reach for a map. Pull over and explain the need to devote your full attention to the road.

Use this checklist

Always wear a seat belt and insist that others do.
Come to a complete stop at stop signs and signals.
Keep a safe following and stopping distance.
Obey the posted speed limit.
Use your turn signal for changing lanes and when turning.
Treat other drivers with courtesy.
Avoid distractions that take your attention from the road.

Make sure they know their risks
Talk with your child about the consequences of unsafe driving behaviors and other hazards common to new drivers.

Risks due to age and inexperience. Hazard perception is a particular problem for young drivers. Teenagers have not yet developed the ability to "scan" far ahead and to the sides as they drive, and they do not detect hazards like pedestrians or roadside objects as quickly as adults. They also don't respond to them as quickly.

Risks due to driving conditions or situations. Driving with passengers, at night, in poor weather, or while distracted by the radio or cell phone all increase teens' crash risk.

Distractions are particularly dangerous for new drivers. Research has shown that, as a rule of thumb, a driver's eyes should not leave the road for more than three seconds at a time.

Encourage your teenager to drive more cautiously and to leave greater distance between him or her and the next car in front when it's dark or raining.

Risks due to driver behavior. Not wearing seat belts, drinking and driving, speeding, using a cell phone, and carrying other teenaged passengers (even just one) all greatly increase a young driver's crash risk and can often mean the difference between a minor crash and a serious or even fatal one.

Talk about the risks and consequences of these behaviors, and discuss what the penalties will be if your teen doesn't follow the rules, such as removing certain driving privileges. Kids who are more likely to take risks off the road are also more likely to take risks on the road, which can be deadly.