Stay Safe With Verbal Control

Be ready for surprises. Your teen is almost guaranteed to misinterpret a traffic sign or signal, not see a car when lane changing, not turn enough for a corner, not slow down enough for a corner or not see a conflict. The challenge is making sure they do exactly what you need them to when one of these situations arises. Be ready to, at any time, verbally control their driving.

• Instead of "Watch out!" or "No! No! No!" or letting out a gasp, you're going to need to focus your words on what they physically need to do.
• Think of yourself as a puppet master in the passenger seat and through a few key words you could make your son or daughter physically act.
• If something surprising is happening, increase the tone and frequency of your words if you need to communicate urgency.
• Some effective verbal commands you can use during practice if the situation requires:
  • "Look ahead" - Student looks forward and fixes veering, drifting or staring elsewhere.
  • "Look way ahead" (while you point) - Student looks through corner and smoothes out steering.
  • "Look past that ____, aim for the open path" (while you point) - Student stops staring at an object they want to avoid and drives around it instead of into it.
  • "Slow. SLOW. SLOW!" - Slows the car for corners, mid-corner or for traffic changes.
  • "Stop. STOP. STOP!" - Brings the car to a halt stop signs, traffic signals, pedestrians, etc.
  • "Hold on. HOLD ON!" - Keeps the student from driving or pulling out onto a street.
  • "Turn. TURN. TURN!" - Student will turn more and more.
  • "Unwind. UNWIND. UNWIND!" - Student will unwind steering more and more.
  • "Not yet. NOT YET!" - Keeps student from turning too early and driving over curbs before a corner.
  • "Move left. MOVE LEFT!" - Distances car from objects.
  • "There, that's it," or "Hold it right there." - Controls the steering wheel during sharp turning maneuvers like parking.