How to Teach your Child about Road Safety6 min read

Road safety is something that every parent should teach their child without fail. Children and young adults are prone to road accidents because they can be pretty careless. As your child continues to grow and move around, you won’t always be there to protect him or supervise his actions on the road. This is why you should approach your child from a younger age and teach him about road safety much before he starts to go out on roads by themself. This way he will be well-equipped when the time comes as well as remember the lessons he learns forever.

Teach your child the road-language

Before talking about road safety, the first thing you should do is teach your child about the language of roads. Educate your child about what various roads and streets are called – main roads, lanes, highways and so on. Talk to him/her about what the safe places on the road are – the pavement, bridges, zebra crossing, etc. Also, teach your child about which vehicles are expected to travel on which part of the road. Give him/her an understanding of speed, speed limits, speed breakers and so on.

10 road safety rules your child should be educated on

Here is a list of 10 road safety rules that every parent should mandatorily teach their child.

1. Do not run on the road/streets
2. Cross the road only on the zebra crossing
3. Always walk on the pavement
4. Always strap your seatbelt in the car
5. Only get off the car on the safer side of the road
6. Understand traffic signs and always follow them
7. Don’t play on the main road and busy streets
8. Do not cross near blind spots
9. Always be well-covered and geared up for bicycle rides
10. Never stick your hand or head out of a moving vehicle

4 easy and fun ways to teach your child about road safety

Introducing fun methods when teaching your kids will not only help them to be more interested in what they’re being taught but also remember it forever. Here are a few easy and enjoyable ways you can teach your child some all-important road safety rules.

Always walk on the pavement!

Teaching your child to walk on footpaths and pavements is so important. Children can avoid a lot of accidents and unnecessary injuries by following this simple rule. Walking vigilantly and staying alert on the road will help to keep your child safe.

How can you instill this important road safety rule in a fun manner?

Newspaper Pavement

This is a fun game that you can play with your kids. Gather newspapers throughout the week for this activity. Place the newspapers one after the other lengthwise to fit into the corners of the room. Tell your children to imagine that the newspapers form an imaginary footpath while the center of the room is an imaginary main road. Start by asking everyone to walk on the newspaper pavement one by one. Whoever steps out of it loses a point each time. Every minute that a person walks properly on the footpath, they gain a point. As everyone plays the game, talk about the importance of walking on the pavement and the risks of stepping off it. Next time you’re on a real road with your kids, they’ll remember to stay on the pavement for good measure.

Strap your belts on!

Seat belts are extremely important and one can never take them too lightly. Children being strapped into the car seat or wearing their seat belts can help to avoid a number of potential accidents that no one could see coming.

Seat belt trouble

For this activity, you’ll need two adults. Place two chairs next to each other, facing a third chair. Make your child sit in the audience on the third chair while you and your spouse/friend/relative sit next to each other on the two chairs. Pretend that you’re in a moving car and eventually the driver brakes abruptly and one of you falls off the chair. This is to demonstrate how not using seat belts can seriously injure someone in a moving car. Your child will not only love watching you foolishly fall off your seat but also learn an important lesson in the process.

Beware of blind spots!

A blind spot is an area around the vehicle that can’t be directly seen or observed by the driver when driving. You must make your child aware of the possible blind spots on various vehicles. For instance, the rear corners of large vehicles such as buses are blind spots. Understanding blind spots will help kids to steer clear of them on the road.

Blind spots spotted

To conduct this activity, you will need a toy truck/bus (or a chart to draw it out), a toy human figure and some colored pens if you’re drawing it out. Refer to the internet and find out the exact blind spots on the vehicle. Indicate them on your drawing or on the real toy. Then have your child place the human figure in various blind spots and illustrate how it is harmful to be in these places. Watching a miniature version will help your child to vividly remember this rule for life. Next time you go out with your child, have them guess the possible blind spots on different vehicles or ask them to recall from memory.

Follow the lights!

When we talk about road lights, traffic lights are pretty much the only thing that comes to mind. However, there are so many other lights on the road that are important for children to know and understand, like the fluorescent lights on the road as well as the signs to use the zebra crossing.

Lights will guide you

This is quite a fun game to play around the house. All you’ll need is a large chart/cardboard to draw the zebra crossing on, and one circle cut-out of red and green color respectively. Now, ask one person to volunteer and stick the red circle on their chest and the green one on their back. Place the drawn zebra crossing in the middle of the room. Now take turns to stand at the beginning of the crossing, and the person with the colored circles either faces the red or green side towards the person crossing. When the red side is facing forward, the person must stop and when the green side is facing forward, he can proceed to cross. You can also make a placard with a walking sign. When the person with the lights holds up the sign, you have to walk only on the zebra crossing. If you walk anywhere else in the room, you will be disqualified and the next person steps in. This is a great game that combines learning and fun to help your child remember his lights.

Conclusion

Whether you choose to sit down and have a serious conversation about road safety or involve fun methods to instill this knowledge, educating kids on the importance of being safe on the road and following rules from a young age is crucial.