Teaching kids to cross roads safely
This morning, one of my children walked in front of a car...
O is 6yrs old and always walks to school with me. Since he was 3, it's become a habit that every time we approach a road that we want to cross, we wait at the kerbside and look both ways to see if it's safe to cross.
This process has been working great!
It's a basic teaching process known as coaching where there's an initial assumption that O doesn't want to get hurt as he crosses the road and questions are used to check that this assumption is correct (it was) before prompting him further with questions that get HIM to suggest what actions are needed to ensure it is safe before crossing. As "his teacher" in this case, I only add information where he doesn't seem to know it himself (and in spite of his young age, I don't assume he doesn't know it - I ask questions to establish his lack of knowledge as fact before giving him that information). Examples of information that O has needed to be told have included the fact that there are other vehicles on the roads in addition to cars and that cars approaching junctions with orange flashing lights on them intend to turn into side roads.
The BMW driver involved this morning was fantastic and stopped the car calmly within a meter or so of hitting O. As we walked towards the crossing point, and with the car coming, I had asked the question "is it safe to cross?" and...
Now with coaching, an incident like this prompts a conversation. Why did he walk in front of the car, even though he appeared to look at it? The assumption that he didn't look properly is an easy one to make, but it is a key principle of coaching that you establish these things to be fact rather than jumping to conclusions - the process relies on taking a non-judgement approach.
With a bit of questioning, O's answer was very enlightening (and it really shows the benefits of this style of teaching) - he simply walked because cars coming towards him "usually stop to let us cross" in spite of his initial belief being that he had to wait for them...
Now, this is a typical moment of learning for a 6yr old and one of many in his life. As his parent, I will continue to do the work that a parent does in ensuring that he learns from these things, but perhaps there are lessons for others in the story?
It is very, very common for example on learner driver lessons for people to stop (in spite of what the Highway Code instructs them to do), and "let the learner out" of junctions, robbing the learner of the opportunity to learn to judge what is safe and what isn't and dare I say it, unknowingly contributing to the fact that "poor observations at junctions" is THE number one cause of car crashes.
When you train as a Driving Instructor, you learn a lot about coaching as it's the way we teach people to drive these days and a demonstration of competence in using the technique will be required if you are to be successful in the part 3 test of instructional ability. We spend a lot of time expanding the theory of learning and looking at how different people will respond to different types of questions.
If you're interested in learning more, please get in touch either by visiting our Facebook page, the website or by calling 0800 820 20 38 and booking a no obligation chat over coffee.
O is 6yrs old and always walks to school with me. Since he was 3, it's become a habit that every time we approach a road that we want to cross, we wait at the kerbside and look both ways to see if it's safe to cross.
I let O do all the work and make the decision and ask him questions to facilitate the process and check the decision is right
This process has been working great!
It's a basic teaching process known as coaching where there's an initial assumption that O doesn't want to get hurt as he crosses the road and questions are used to check that this assumption is correct (it was) before prompting him further with questions that get HIM to suggest what actions are needed to ensure it is safe before crossing. As "his teacher" in this case, I only add information where he doesn't seem to know it himself (and in spite of his young age, I don't assume he doesn't know it - I ask questions to establish his lack of knowledge as fact before giving him that information). Examples of information that O has needed to be told have included the fact that there are other vehicles on the roads in addition to cars and that cars approaching junctions with orange flashing lights on them intend to turn into side roads.
The BMW driver involved this morning was fantastic and stopped the car calmly within a meter or so of hitting O. As we walked towards the crossing point, and with the car coming, I had asked the question "is it safe to cross?" and...
I saw O respond by looking both ways and I saw him look straight at the car before walking straight in front of it!
Now with coaching, an incident like this prompts a conversation. Why did he walk in front of the car, even though he appeared to look at it? The assumption that he didn't look properly is an easy one to make, but it is a key principle of coaching that you establish these things to be fact rather than jumping to conclusions - the process relies on taking a non-judgement approach.
With a bit of questioning, O's answer was very enlightening (and it really shows the benefits of this style of teaching) - he simply walked because cars coming towards him "usually stop to let us cross" in spite of his initial belief being that he had to wait for them...
In other words, he's been "taught" by those people who only mean well and didn't realise they were teaching anything, that waiting for the vehicles to pass before crossing the road isn't necessary!
Now, this is a typical moment of learning for a 6yr old and one of many in his life. As his parent, I will continue to do the work that a parent does in ensuring that he learns from these things, but perhaps there are lessons for others in the story?
It is very, very common for example on learner driver lessons for people to stop (in spite of what the Highway Code instructs them to do), and "let the learner out" of junctions, robbing the learner of the opportunity to learn to judge what is safe and what isn't and dare I say it, unknowingly contributing to the fact that "poor observations at junctions" is THE number one cause of car crashes.
When you train as a Driving Instructor, you learn a lot about coaching as it's the way we teach people to drive these days and a demonstration of competence in using the technique will be required if you are to be successful in the part 3 test of instructional ability. We spend a lot of time expanding the theory of learning and looking at how different people will respond to different types of questions.
If you're interested in learning more, please get in touch either by visiting our Facebook page, the website or by calling 0800 820 20 38 and booking a no obligation chat over coffee.
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