Effective way to teach 5yr old about cars, road safety

[katykoffdrop27]

Hi, any advice on this subject would be appreciated. Have a DS who's five and a half. He plays out in our close which is relatively quiet but cars do come and go, usually fairly slow as they are aware of the kids playing on their bikes, etc. Today a Tesco delivery van came round and my DS decided to run up behind it, really close, whilst it was moving. Couldn't believe my eyes. After having shouted at him for being so stupid, etc, I sat him down and explained to him how dangerous it was to do that and what the consequences could have been if the van had stopped and reversed over him. Perish the thought. He is usually pretty good but of course they get distracted or show off in front of their friends (as I think he was doing). So, does anyone have any good ways of teaching young ones about road safety, moving vehicles, etc, so it is drummed into them. Any advice welcome! Thanks :-)

My DS has autism and has little road sense but whenever I am out with him whenever we cross the road we stop and he looks and listens and we walk across when safe. We even do this in my road which also has little traffic just so he understands roads are potentially dangerous. Just repeat the message often.

If you're in London (or some other areas - google will tell you) you can sign up for the Children's Traffic Club magazines which are quite good (though aimed at slightly younger DC).
One suggestion is to get him to knock his hand on the side of (your) car really hard to feel how hard it is against his soft skin (NB that I'm suggesting that he does it himself - obviously there are harsher versions but I'm not suggesting them).

I've got thinking about this more and I used to be in the Tufty club and you can still join! :) here

When my DH was young my MIL got a cardboard box and ran over it with the car. Apparently he was quite shocked by it but was much more careful around cars afterwards.

Thanks for your suggestions so far - didn't know the Tufty Club was still going so will investigate that one! I also think the cardboard box idea is a great one, especially in our close with cars coming and going - regardless how slow - it will show him the damage even a slow vehicle can do. Thanks everyone, really appreciate your ideas :-)

I think I might try the box idea - sounds like a good shock tactic! My DS is 6 - when he started school I was worried that he didn't understand how dangerous cars can be as they don't teach road safety at his school. I spoke to his teacher about the issue and she introduced the Beddy website to me (www.beddy.co.uk). It's an interactive website that gives parents and teachers resources to help educate kids about the green cross code and the importance of road safety. We use it all the time as it makes learning about road safety fun and interactive through games, lesson plans and worksheets. I've found that he has started to recognise things from the games such as lollypop ladies and pelican crossings when we walk to school which is great progress! I think they do school visits with their trucks too. Hope this can be of some help! :)