We put together the route “home-school-home”
Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for children under 14 years of age, according to the WHO. In our country, children are involved in every seventh traffic accident. Therefore, “preparing a child for school” means first and foremost teaching him safe behavior on the road.
The “home-school-home” schedule, which the class teacher asks to draw up and paste in the journal, is one of the most effective ways to teach a child to navigate a traffic situation. Unless, of course, you don’t treat the job as a pro forma.
How do you choose a safe route?
Rate:
- Crosswalk safety. Whether there is a traffic light, whether it works, whether there are speed bumps, a sign “Beware of children” – all this is important.
- Review. The less dense bushes, unloading trucks and other objects that obstruct the view along the way, the better.
- Relief. In winter it starts to get light around the end of the first lesson. Are there enough work lights on the way?
- Travel time. If the longer route is safer, choose it. It is important that the child is given the opportunity not to rush. Otherwise, he will be constantly tempted to “cut off”.
- Route popularity. The more parents with children who follow the same path, the better. In case of emergency, your child can always ask for help.
Cross the road with children alone on the “zebra”. This path is probably longer. But it’s safer.
Where to complain when the lights aren’t on (traffic lights don’t work occasionally)?
Contact the management company if it is dark in the yard. For street lighting – to the city authorities. Report a non-working traffic light to the traffic police of your city (in Moscow you can contact Deptrans). An application for the installation of a speed bump should be addressed to the head of the local government.
Let’s talk about the rules
Walk the student to and from school several times – in the morning or evening, when the lights are on, the second time in the afternoon, in natural light. Ask your child which areas seem difficult to him. Compare to your own conclusions and you will be surprised how often children’s and adults’ perceptions of danger do not match.
Talk to your child about both obvious dangers on the road (driving cars and electric scooters; areas where construction and repair work is being done, there is no lighting, etc., the road, homeless animals).
Analyze a variety of traffic situations: driving past parked cars, passing a truck unloading, crossing the road with a broken traffic light, and others.
When choosing a route, it is important that the student feels that he has chosen the path himself – then there will be less temptation to break the promise.
Draw the selected route with your child on an online map (for example, in Yandex or Google). Highlight potentially dangerous places in red.
Pitfalls of children’s perception and the most dangerous places
- Most primary school students forget to look around their own garden – it seems absolutely safe. The reason is the so-called “instantaneous” perception. When a child closes his eyes, he believes that no one sees him. And on the contrary, he believes “since I see, then they see me”. In fact, it is very difficult for the driver to notice the baby when he is near a parked car or behind it. Explain that the roadway starts immediately after exiting the entrance. Squat next to the car – have the child make sure you are not visible behind the car.
- Keep in mind that children do not know how to predict the situation on the road. For example, it may be difficult for a child to guess that a slowed car could cause another car to jump out in a second. The reason lies both in the lack of life experience and in the underdeveloped ability to anticipate – in other words, to ‘foresee’ an event that may soon happen. Play the “Guess What Happens Next?” game. Ask questions like, “There’s a truck on the side of the road, what do you think we’ll see in a few seconds?” So the child will begin to learn to predict the possible development of events. Teach your child (approximately) to estimate the speed of the car, the direction of its future movement.
- In addition, children are impulsive. Therefore, the last street to cross when returning home is considered particularly dangerous (children often “fly” to the entrance without looking back, especially if they have seen one of their relatives) and the last street before the school, when the child goes to class (where you can meet classmates, let yourself be carried away by a conversation or a game).
Learn a toy!
How do you check whether the child has learned the rules for safe behavior? Delegate the elder’s powers to him. For example, ask to teach your favorite toy to cross the road. The child should say aloud his actions: “let’s look at the traffic light”, “here comes a car, let’s let it pass”, etc.
The ‘watch-call’ technique teaches the child to focus on the ‘here and now’, even the sidewalk. Play road scenes at home with cars, toy road signs. Draw markings, trees – the more resemblance to the real road, the better.
Not together, but close
After walking your child to and from school several times, “losing” the most likely traffic situations, let your child know that he will go alone next time. And… follow him calmly.
Watch how he behaves, if he makes mistakes. And determine if your child is ready to go to school alone or if he needs more practice.
And now himself!
If you decide that the child is ready for independence, make an agreement with him – to walk only on the chosen route, to call if he stayed after school to play in the schoolyard, and so on. Put on your children cheerful clothes with reflective stripes, put a flashlight in your backpack and it is convenient to buy a GPS tracker with communication function and an SOS button.
Just don’t intimidate and don’t scold for every mistake. It is much more effective to explain, practice knowledge in the game and set an example through your own correct behavior on the road.
Take good care of yourself and your children!
- “Behind the wheel” can be read in Yandex.Zen.