Neurodiverse and learning to Drive

[dottypotter]

Can I have your opinions/experience please?
Is it harder/impossible for ND people to learn to drive?

I'm autistic and I passed my test in a manual last month, in my40s.

I chose a very calm driving instructor and warned him I had extreme social anxiety and would probably be very, very nervous. So he took it slowly and NEVER got wound up at me.

We started in the quiet end of a supermarket car park, on the quietest part of the week, just going up and down to get used to the idea and to concentrate on getting the hang of coordinating feet/hands etc. We didn't hit an actual road for a month. He regularly took over doing the indicators if I needed to concentrate more. Crucially, he stayed calm!

I found two hour lessons with a toilet/coffee break in the middle was best. You spend the first bit calming down (we always started on the same easy route to get into it again), then the second half doing harder stuff once you're calm.

Honestly, it was fine. Way better than I'd expected. I passed first time despite having shit coordination!

If you're in the NE I can recommend him

Absolutely not more difficult! Both my ND DS passed extremely quickly.

Although that’s only if it affects your ability to drive safely - so not everyone with those conditions needs to declare.

Oh, and your type of neurodiversity affects how you learn. He reckoned my autism/paranoia about other drivers made me exceptionally safe as a driver. ADHD tends to mean less fear. It's actually a bonus in some ways.

I'm autistic and have come to accept that I can't always trust my own judgement. This means I've decided not to learn to drive, as I cannot trust that I would make safe decisions.

I have ADHD which means, for me, I aced the theory but can’t stick with lessons long enough to learn to actually drive

I'm not sure what the AIBIU question is, so didn't know how to vote. But as many other people have said it completely depends on the individual person and the nature of their neurodiversity. My young adult child has dyspraxia and ADHD, which manifests as poor spatial awareness and motor planning, impulsivity and slow processing. All of which would be barriers to learning to drive and/or being a safe driver.

You don't need to declare the diagnosis itself.

Only if it affects your driving.

It depends on the individual. Dyspraxics may struggle but the autistics I know found it easier than neurotypicals.

My DS just passed this week - he's 24 and has high functioning ASD (was diagnosed Aspergers but I understand this is no longer a 'thing'). He learned in an automatic. His issues were never with operating a car, more in anticipating the actions of other road users where they are illogical or don't follow the rules. He didn't try when he was younger due to uni and covid.

It took him 4 attempts to pass but he finally did it! He's been driving my car in the long gaps between his tests (because it's still a nightmare to get test bookings) with learner insurance - I've just been sitting in the car on my phone, his driving is fine, he's just struggled on test days. He drove himself to his sports training last night, and commented that it wasn't as weird as he thought to drive on his own. I said 'this is why I've sat quietly on my phone in the car, so you're not used to having someone chatting a lot'.

Yes.

My daughter has Tourette’s, ASD and dyslexia.

None of them would stop her driving and she didn’t have to declare it DVLA unless she felt they affected her driving - they didn’t.

It was seizures that put the kibosh on her driving in the end

I'm ND and never had any problems learning to drive. Passed first time as well. Ds', on the other hand, hates driving and is really struggling. He's going to have to do it though as I can't keep on giving him lifts and public transport is too expensive and unreliable.

I likely have ADHD (I score high on inattentive subtype on validated measures) but I have never been assessed. Everyone I've asked has said it's a terrible idea because I get very easily distracted. I agree. I also struggle with spatial awareness, directions, and knowing my left and right. I doubt I'd be safe on the road. I have to get pushed out of the corner on bumper cars 😂

I’m autistic and find it actually makes me a better driver! The single minded focus on the road means I am aware of other drivers’ behaviour and intentions much earlier, I am continuously reading the traffic flow ahead of and behind me, I am not distracted by things that interest neurotypical drivers like conversation or music.
It took me a while to learn, as I was very anxious, and needed a lot of practice to coordinate gear changes and foot pedals etc, but once I had the movements memorised I could absolutely “get into the zone” and become one with the car.
As a young doctor I used to have to drive on emergency calls at over 100mph, covering two hospitals from home, and I’m proud of my over forty years no claims bonus.

It is harder. I struggle to notice road signs, so it helps me to have a sat nav where the speed limit pops up on the screen. I only drive on familiar roads where I know the correct lane and where I’m going, because when it’s unfamiliar I can’t react fast enough to the road signs and environment. If I need to drive somewhere unfamiliar I preview the entire route on Google Maps and memorise where I’m going and which lane I need to be in etc. It took me many hours to get familiar enough with the local roads to be able to drive on them well enough to pass a test - many more hours than a NT person would need. I couldn’t have afforded that many hours with an instructor, I needed to go out driving with my mum in her car for hours and hours to memorise the roads.

I'm autistic and passed first go after a month of lessons. I had no idea at the time that I was ASD. I also think I am not a bad driver as I completely focus on driving and ignore my passengers to an extent.

My dps gave me lots of off road practice so that the pedals and gears had become automatic movements before I ever went out on the road.

I also needed to read about how to drive, and not just be told or shown. And I needed answers to my hundreds of questions.

So yes, probably a bit slower than average but I passed first time and I’ve never had an accident. I think I have a more realistic grasp of braking distances than most drivers.

I’m dyspraxic and spent years thinking I couldn’t/shouldn’t drive. Now I do drive in an automatic, which is easier and I just drive the routes that I know well. Still stressful - I don’t like to drive for more than 20 mins at a time as it’s so tiring, don’t drive anywhere I haven’t previously been, won’t go on motorways, won’t go to places with big roundabouts, don’t try to parallel park. So there’s a lot of planning involved and I always allow extra time to find easy parking spots etc.

basically I know my limitations so just drive routes I’m confident I can do safely.

im probably a pretty annoying driver (tend to go too slow) but can drive (in the limited way that I do) safely at least.

I'm autistic, learned to drive in my late 20's and like PP's I focus solely on driving, I drive a manual and passed both the theory and practical first time.

Neurodiverse includes such a wide spectrum that it is not useful to use the term when asking for specific advice like this. All 4 of our kids come under this umbrella, 2 have driving licences, passed first time, one is refusing to try as too anxious, one has ld's so no capacity.

Generalising, if you are only diagnosed as a teen/adult then you probably are not as affected so learning to drive should be possible, it may take a little longer, it may not. As I say I'm generalising, everyone is different

I didn't know I was ND. I have a great spatial awareness (no idea if that's ND) and I KNOW so much of the highway code by heart. BUT it took me a bit longer to develop the muscle memory part of driving. I did pass first time at 17. It was fantastic to be able to control the car environment, radio, heat, speed etc. Before that I'd always hated cars.

I have ASD and it was harder but not impossible. For a long time I refused to drive alone anywhere I didn't know as I have no sense of direction and couldn't focus on driving when worrying about getting lost, but sat-nav was a game changer there.
Regarding telling the DVLA I did check with my doctor and he basically said if you can pass the test it doesn't affect your driving. This may not be the case for other ND conditions though.

I failed three or four times due to chronic ASD overthinking. Had a row with the last examiner as I saw early on he'd already failed me and saw no point continuing the charade.

I know a lot dyspraxic (and dyspraxic and adhd drivers. It took them a lot longer to learn, longer for the post test muscle memory to kick in but they're all great drivers.

1 has never had an accident
1 had several just before / after passing their test but none for over a decade and often drives abroad
1 had a few bumps and grazes in the first few years but nothing major and nothing for many years

My autistic and autistic & adhd drivers are also good drivers.

I trust all of them to drive my kids around.

I'm autistic qnd have ADHD. I learned just fine in a normal manual car, but everyone's different. As a PP said my main issue on the road is keeping in mind at all times that other people do not behave in a logical way and don't bother to follow the rules. Infuriating and baffling at the same time. But once you build in caution to compensate for their incompetence and weird behaviour, it's fine. Like you have to with all other aspects of life in an NT world really. 🤣

I think it would be different for different people as the whole point of the spectrum is that we all have different skills and deficits. Weirdly my spatial awareness when walking about is terrible but in a car it is really good, perhaps because I know I am driving a machine, not just moving my body without thinking, so focus all of my attention on that. I used to drive hundreds of miles per week for work, have driven in so many different countries, left hand drive cars etc, no problem. The only time I have ever had a crash was when I was on the way to my ADHD assessment... 🤣🤣🤣 So stressed about it and distracted. The irony.