Driving lessons for 18th Birthday present for aspie son?

[cupcakesandwine]

My DS is 18 soon and I'd like to give him driving lessons as a present. Part of me thinks that he will be a very good driver, he has great 3D spatial awareness and good depth and speed perception. While his concentration can be variable, he can concentrate for hours on video games and I suspect driving would seem a lot like a video game to him.

The negative part of me worries that if it does not go well it will knock his confidence which is never great at the best of times and also about what would happen if he were ever in an accident whether his fault or not. He would not deal well with someone shouting at him.

Does anyone have an aspie child who has learned to drive? If so, how did it go?

I learnt to drive a few years ago. I hated it for ages but now I drive every day for work.

We tried (DS2 is 18) but it didn't work for him. However I am glad he had a go..and will possibly try again when he's in his mid 20s. We found a lovely instructor who specialised in teaching people with disabilities and was experienced with ASD... very calm and gentle. However after about 20 lessons it became very very clear that DS2 doesn't have the ability to multi task and totally lacked awareness of eveyone around him. He also has learning disability which contributed to his difficulty and dyspraxia, so it was always going to be a massie challenge.

But several of his peers drive; just seek out someone who understands how his Aspergers affects his learning style :)

Thanks very much both of you. I think I will give it a try but in a low key way. Maybe not as his birthday present though!

We gave DS driving lessons for his 17th birthday present and some more for Christmas. He used a local instructor who came recommended by all the local teenagers who just happened to be very good with DS.
DS had already had a couple of 'Young Driver' type lessons with another instructor on private land when he was 16, so we knew he could cope with all the controls etc - in fact the instructor said he was a natural.
He had about 20 lessons plus we insured one of our cars for him to practice in after he had been learning for a couple of months. He failed his 1st test after making a silly mistake - he knew he had failed as soon as he had done it, but amazingly managed to carry on and stay calm. (I think the instructor had covered this scenario in the lessons). He passed the 2nd time, 2 months later.

The bit DS struggles with is going to places he doesn't know. He learned to drive and took his test in a relatively quiet area as far as traffic is concerned and worries about going to places he is unfamiliar with - especially where there are large roundabouts woth multiple lanes and he doesn't know which lane he should be in. Before anyone says he's not safe on the road and shouldn't be driving - he self regulates ie if he's not confident then he won't go or he'll go with one of us in the passenger seat so we can help direct him.It's just a confidence thing which I'm sure will improve with time.