As you and your teen begin using Driver Ed in a Box®, you’re going to start using the commentary when you get to the in-vehicle training, and it just might feel a little awkward at first. Don’t worry, that’s normal. It’s not a natural thing, for most of us, to narrate everything we’re doing. Of course, neither is driving for that matter, when you first learn to do it.
I’ll tell you why it’s so important to stick with the commentary, though, as awkward as it might feel to you at first. When you start the in-vehicle training with your teen, the commentary is going to help relieve some of the anxiety, the pressure you’re going to be feeling as you coach your teen. When your teen is using the commentary, it lets you know that she sees the car pulling into the intersection, or that the lane she’s driving in is about to end.
As the instructor, it’s important that you push and prompt your teen to keep up with the commentary. Not only will this help relieve your own anxiety about whether or not your teen sees what’s going on in the traffic scene, it will help ease your teen’s tension as well. She’ll probably feel a bit more relaxed if you’re not asking her whether or not she sees every single thing that’s going on in the traffic scene!
Watch this video to see Patrick Barrett, the Driver Education Guru, explain more about using the commentary to keep the sanity.