Our work is dedicated to ALL victims and survivors of road trauma
Great Respect of Calm and Time
Choosing a calm, slower approach is essential to moving forward in learning to drive the car.
Our approach includes:
- Breaking down movements into minor pieces
- Allowing the learner to achieve these steps at their own pace
- Keeping quiet to give the learner total concentration
- A calm and peaceful environment
- Checking to ensure anxiety levels are manageable as many hide their stress in silence
- Building a trusting exchange of information
- Allow for open discussion about confusing or misunderstood words
- Repeatedly allow the learner to stop, wait, rest, end, repeat or get out and walk around, or switch drivers and let the instructor drive
- Instructors must learn to stop, listen, and slow down the information exchange.
Choice In Your Hands
“Should I drive to our target streets to start, or would you like to drive us there today?” “Would you like me to drive us back to your home, or would you like to take us back today?” We present choices for you, the driver, to decide. Decisions in the driver’s hands are top priority, always.
Park and Pace
Park and Pace is a method we use regularly. We park throughout the session to ensure you pace yourself. Overwhelmed or not fully understanding a lesson, we park and go over the lesson by discussion or drawing the scenarios to ensure you are confident with your newfound knowledge.
Calm Driving Areas
We start in a carefully chosen area with low traffic volumes and wider, calmer street designs. Reducing complexity in the beginning is critical for developing the first steps to building knowledge, confidence and managing anxiety. Moving out of these preplanned calm areas is decided by the driver and done in small chunks to help develop the management of one’s confidence. In time, you build more complex activities on top of these more peaceful areas at your own pace.
4 Ways to Learn to Pace Yourself When Learning to Drive
- Check your rate of breathing
- Tune into your body and feelings
- Talk it out with your instructor
- Let go of expectations. Some days you will feel like you are taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back and this is totally normal!
Blend Flaws Into Benefits
“Dam, I keep steering too-wide on my turns. I am so sorry I keep doing that.” Okay, so let’s go to that next corner where the sidewalk and grassy area are very wide, jutting out into our lane. Here your skill of ‘too-wide’ is valuable! For sure, you must steer wide to avoid bouncing over the grass section! Your too-wide move is a valuable skill! BRAVO!
Too often, we hear that certain behaviour is wrong when it has value in other instances. For example, sitting too far left in a lane can be dangerous at times; however, it becomes an essential skill when passing a cyclist. Being flexible and able to do different positions and movements is critical with driving. What you may think is a flaw may well be a crucial skill.
Flexible All Around
Overcoming anxiety or fear occurs at a different pace for each of us. You dictate the steps that work best for you to manage your learning. This learning style demands flexibility, demands schedule changes and often changes routes. We have many other things to think about besides just learning to steer. Flexibility all around is part of this service.
“Sorry, I cannot manage tomorrow’s session time. Can we move it till afternoon?”
Surprisingly, most all our clients who respect flexibility are very accommodating when changes are requested. This flexibility is a vital part of the overall service. And yes, we all have rules and limits, but we always do our utmost to accommodate changes.
Confidence For Life
Careful documentation, sketches, discussions, plans, and goals are all part of a surefooted approach to overcoming obstacles and achieving targeted objectives. Additionally, we work on a simple ranking measurement, a 1 to 10 numbering system, showing progress in each learning area. Both the instructor and you measure levels and work together to understand what’s required to advance. This ranking system helps reveal the progress as well as the areas that need more focus. As you see improvement, confidence often grows positively in other areas of your life. Achieving the ability to drive safely is a huge step to more independence. BRAVO!
