Remember the agony you went through when you got behind the steering wheel of your dad’s car for the first time? Your hands were trembling when you buckled the safety belt. You could hardly press the button to adjust the mirrors (or maybe in those days you had to open the window and do it manually). And to switch on the engine felt like your were activating a monster that would propel you right through the garage wall and into outer space.

Below we give some information so you can make this time of his/her life a little less daunting and a lot more fun for your teenage son or daughter.

An important tip is to concentrate on teaching the student one skill at a time. This will take a lot of stress out of the situation. A good starting point, before they even switch on the car, is to make sure they know the location and function of all the major controls. It can be fatal if they should ever get in an emergency situation, and don’t know how to switch on the headlights, or where the emergency brake is. Make sure they know every single control, and can find it with their eyes closed. This can save a life in future.

Secondly, remember that practice makes perfect. Even if your student can’t wait to get going, let him practice all the basic skills over and over. Once again, in an emergency situation they have to react instinctively. There is no time to think what your next step should be. Let them practice in an empty parking lot after hours.

Beginning your lesson with parking skills is a good idea. This will help the learner to develop a feeling for how the car responds to what he does – at a slow, manageable speed. Reversing the car and making use of the rear view mirror at the same time is a scary experience the first time round, so let him practice this many times. Then let him try reverse parking. Some of us never learn to do this properly, so now is your chance to make sure he is not one of them.

I will never forget approaching the first curve I encountered in the road at a speed that must have scared my father brainless, because I can still hear his shouts: “Slow down!….. Slow Dooooooown!” It takes time to get a feeling for the way in which a car responds to different road conditions and speeds, and to applying the brakes – especially when you have already entered a curve. Stopping at a stop street should not involve driving right up to the stop sign and then stepping on the brakes. None of this is obvious to a new driver, so discuss this with him before he encounters the actual circumstances.

Another thing that is very scary is knowing how to deal with people walking across the road, bicycles moving right in front of you, and other cars changing lanes without warning. This can be life threatening if your child should panic and do something stupid, so discuss this with him before actually venturing into the traffic, and start off where you will encounter this, but not on a bewildering scale.

Finally, while learning to drive the student also has to be prepared for driving in adverse conditions, like rain, bad light, snowstorms etc. A training video could be very helpful in this regard – you can watch it together and discuss the appropriate reaction to the different situations.

topgear offer driving instructors anniesland and there is more iformation about driving lessons in anniesland at www.topgeardrivingtuition.com

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