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Teaching Your Teen to Drive

Essential Skills Teen Drivers Need

By Wayne Parker, About.com

What is it that teens need to learn to be a safe driver? Here is a checklist of what you and their drivers education professional will need to emphasize during their process of learning to drive.

The Vehicle Itself

  • Mirrors
  • Seat belts and air bags
  • Tire inflation and inspection
  • Dashboard warning lights
  • Fueling up
  • Checking fluids

Basic Operations

  • Controlling the car
  • Safe turns
  • Shifting gears
  • Backing up
  • Signaling to other drivers
  • Braking
  • Avoiding distractions

Interactions with Others

  • Making lane changes
  • Dealing with intersections
  • Maintaining safe driving distances
  • Defensive driving skills
  • U-turns
  • Three-point turns

Parking

  • 90 degree parking
  • Angle parking
  • Parallel parking

Advanced skills

  • Freeway driving
  • Night driving
  • Driving in snow and/or wet conditions
  • Towing

Emergency Response

  • In case of an accident
  • Changing a flat tire
  • High wind driving
  • Downed power lines nearby

Feeling a little overwhelmed? Well, that's certainly natural in this situation. We forget sometimes how complex driving a car can be. The key to tackling an overwhelming task is to break it down into steps and work each step. Let's take a look at one way to put these skills into stages of teaching.

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