Student of the month Specialised driving lessons for special needs people.
Brittany
When we were introduced to Brittany, she had numerous driving schools previously, her last instructor, a retired Police Driver Trainer, told her she was too stupid to drive and would never get her drivers licence
It took less than 100 metres to understand the core problem behind her driving.
Within the first block of ten sessions, we had proved to each other that she could drive, and was going to be quite proficient in driving. Quite the achievement.
In the next ten sessions, we were at test ready stage. Now lets be clear on this, Test Ready for Total Driver is not just ready to pass the driving test, It is they are proficient in all aspects of driving
- Highway
- Rural and hinterland
- Highspeed lane change and merging skills.
- Maneuvers and slow speed vehicle operation, parking, multipoint turns etc.
We were then focusing on the driving test, when Covid turned her world upside down.
What we find consistently with our students, especially special needs, autism, aspergers and ADHD, is it is always a core problem, that everything else is symptoms.
What was so wrong with Brittanies driving that even an ex Police Driver Trainer told her, was so bad, she was too stupid to drive.
He told her to look at the road, to follow the road markings.
Her vision was so compromised, the information flow was happening too fast, too late and was over whelming her.
She literally could not see what was really happening until it was too late and then she could not react quickly enough
It is called Reactive Driving.
Now, we can never change a persons processing speed, and a lot of people have challenges in this. The average person has a reaction time of 1.5 seconds.
Some special needs this is greatly extended.
Whilst we cannot change the processing speed, we can change the flow of information, so they have time to see, process, make decisions and execute their driving process.
That is what the ART of DRIVING is all about.
