Top Tips for Teaching Children about Road Safety

Teaching children about road safety from a young age is incredibly important as it prevents accidents as they get older. Road safety campaigns have been helping to reduce child road deaths but there is still a long way to go. 78% of child pedestrians involved in accidents failed to look properly, so it is important to teach things like this from a young age. It is important children understand road safety at school age as it is after school when the most accidents involving children occur.

Hand Holding

With younger children hand holding is essential. It is also important you teach young children that they should not cross a road without holding a grown ups hand. This then teaches them valuable lessons in road safety and that the road is a dangerous place.

Green Cross Code

The green cross code was developed to keep pedestrians safe on the road and is a good way of teaching children road safety. The green cross code is usually taught in schools, but it is essential you take the time to teach it at home and demonstrate it when you’re walking with your child.

Think – Find a safe place to cross the road

Stop – Stop at the kerb

Look and Listen – look left and right and listen for cars

Wait

Look and Listen Again

Cross the Road – If it is clear to cross, walk don’t run

Digital Games

We are lucky now that there are so many digital resources which do an amazing job of teaching children valuable lessons in a fun and interactive manner. The road safety charity Brake have some interactive resources which can be used to help children understand the dangers of the road and how to be safe.

Teach with Toys

Children spend a lot of time with their toys and you’ll often find them creating games with them and using their imagination to create different situations and outcomes. If you’re looking to teach your children valuable road safety tips it good be worth while enlisting the help of their toys to show them how to safely use the road. Demonstrate the green cross code to them by showing how their toys also observe these rules and the benefits they get from doing so.

Lead by Example

One of the most important things you can do when teaching your child about road safety is to lead by example. Children are very impressionable which is why it is so important to teach them the correct habits when it comes to road safety and to lead by example. When walking with your children make sure you are also observing road safety rules and the green cross code; don’t run across roads and wait for the safest time to cross. This includes thing such as waiting at pedestrian crossings and not crossing when there is a red man.

The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to children’s road safety is to start young and keep going; always encourage them to be safe on the road and by the time they are on the road on their own they will have all the information to cross safely.