Teaching Your Teen to Drive

The very idea of helping your children learn how to drive strikes fear into the hearts of many parents. Worries about putting a teen behind the wheel of one of the family's most expensive and dangerous possessions are real and tangible.

If you are embarking on the process of teaching your first teen to drive, or if you are trying for a first "successful" experience, then there are some things you should know about teaching your child to drive.

What to Know and What to Expect

As you begin the process of teaching your teen driver, you should be aware of the basic rules for success.

The number of times you drive with your teen is more important than the amount of time in each session. In the beginning, limit your practice time to 15 to 20 minutes at a time. As your teen's confidence increases, you can extend practice times.

Essential Skills Teen Drivers Need Most

Here is a checklist of what you and a driver's education professional will need to emphasize during your teen's process of learning to drive.

The Vehicle Itself

Basic Operations

Interactions With Others

Parking

Advanced Skills

Emergency Response

The 5 Stages of Learning to Drive

The following five stages of driver's education will help you figure out how to best help your teen develop good driving skills.

Stage 1: Learning About Your Vehicle

This stage involves a general orientation about how the vehicle works and what the driver needs to know about the car. Assign reading the manual as well as hands-on demonstrations. At the end of the stage, your teen should know how to:

In each stage, your teen should be proficient at the skills being taught before moving on to the next stage. Each stage will likely take several behind-the-wheel experiences for your teen. Don't try to move too fast.

Stage 2: The Basic Skills

In this stage, the teen driver needs to learn how to maneuver the vehicle and make it do what the driver wants. Most of these skills can be learned in an empty parking lot. At the end of this stage, your teen should be able to:

Stage 3: Interacting With Other Drivers and Distractions

In this stage, your teen will be learning how to operate a vehicle safely with other drivers, parked cars, pedestrians, etc. in their environment. Most of these skills will require beginning on a residential street until comfortable and confident, then moving to a multilane street later during the stage.

At the end of this stage, your teen should be able to:

Stage 4: Parking and Other Turns

Driving is one thing, but parking can be quite another. There are probably more teen accidents associated with getting in and out of parking spots than from any other cause. Once again, an empty parking lot and a residential street are good places to learn this skill set.

At the end of this stage, your teen should be able to:

Stage 5: Advanced Skills

The skills in this stage are essential, but they are advanced and rely on proficiency in other skills learned in the first four stages. Don't try to start on Stage 5 until you feel comfortable that your teen has the other skills well under control. At the end of stage 5, your teen should be able to:

Teaching Responsibility in Driving

Throughout teaching your teen to drive, discuss the responsibilities your child is assuming when she gets behind the wheel.

A Word From Verywell

Teaching your teen to drive is a harrowing experience for some parents. But if you take the time to prepare, work on building skill by skill, and patiently work with your teenager, you can make a huge difference in your teen's driving, now and in the future.

Top Driver. Teaching your teen to drive.

Forbes. 5 signs your teen is ready for a car.

The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds. Are parents good role models for teen drivers?

State Farm. Teen driving 101: a step-by-step test of essential driving skills.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute. Driving in parking lots.

Driving Tests. Everyday maneuvers: How to park a car between two other vehicles.

The Wall Street Journal. Better ways to teach teens to drive.

TeensHealth from Nemours. Bad-weather driving (for teens).

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute. How to drive safely on the highway.

Federal Communications Commission. The dangers of distracted driving.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Pedestrian safety.

The Balance. I had a car accident - now what?

By Wayne Parker Wayne's background in life coaching along with his work helping organizations to build family-friendly policies, gives him a unique perspective on fathering.  

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