Teaching Children About Road Safety
Written by Jana Angeles
If you walk your children to school everyday, it’s time to get a grasp of road safety and what it means for them. Road safety applies to everyone, not just children so it’s important that you as a parent can teach your kids effectively on how to cross the road safely, their rights as a pedestrian and staying cautious of their surroundings around areas where there is busy traffic. Teaching them early can help them beyond their childhood years, while also increasing their awareness of being safe and avoiding any fatal injuries that could occur if the takey risks crossing the road. Here are some benefits of teaching your kids how to be road safe:
Being road smart
Children are young and can easily absorb information in their brains. Teaching them how to be road smart can benefit them in the future, for the safety of themselves and other people. Gaining an awareness of unsafe situations while crossing the road can help them gain a better understanding on the differences between safe and unsafe behaviour when crossing pedestrian crossings, traffic lights and streets. Encourage them to think about the choices they make and to identify safe and unsafe situations when being outside.
Prevention of fatal injuries
Pedestrians can gain fatal injuries crossing the roads when they’re not careful. Your children look up to you when it comes to being safe on the road. This means whenever you’re out with them, make sure you’re not making unsafe decisions when crossing streets and roads with busy traffic. Your kids generally look up to you and try and model that behaviour, so encouraging your kids to always utilise pedestrian crossings where available and making sure roads are clear before crossing can prevent fatal injuries from occurring.
Improves safety and wellbeing
Children learn about safety all the time when they’re at school but you can influence them even more when trying to improve their safety and wellbeing. Giving them simple explanations on the consequence of their actions can help them understand the cause and effect of every decision they make. You also can’t protect your children all the time and they may go to school excursions without your supervision. They may need to cross roads to get to where they need to be, so laying down all the information they need to know can help them and their teachers. You can even reward them when they effectively model safe behaviour when crossing the road, which can provide an incentive for them to keep at it.
Knowledge of rules
The power of knowledge can do wonders and going over the road rules with your children can help them better understand why they have been implemented in the first place. Rules help us become model citizens within society, so gaining knowledge about road rules could prevent them from gaining fines or putting their safety at risk when outside. Now that your children are slowly gaining some independence, being able to gain some knowledge on why road rules exist will help them be responsible when it comes to their actions and how these can affect themselves and other people.
Staying cautious of their surroundings
Road safety isn’t all about following the rules religiously, but to also stay cautious of their surroundings. There will be times where your children will eventually become independent from you and they will be on their own when needing to go from place to place. Teaching them to stay cautious of their own surroundings can help them identify unsafe situations such as predator activity or people who are looking to cause harm. Helping them identify situations like these can help them react faster and find a safe space for them to go to when needed. In all honesty, road safety is also about paying attention to streets and roads that you know aren’t safe and making this a priority can help your children when they are finally realising their own independence.
Road safety is an important step for all children. Not only will they learn about safety tips when crossing the road, but it will help them understand the consequences of their own actions if they are not safe when crossing busy areas with traffic. Helping your children know the difference between safe and unsafe situations can help them in the future, ensuring that they are aware of their own surroundings while also improving their own safety and wellbeing.