My Seventh Outline

Children and Road Rage: Exercises in Educating

This is a presentation of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving

By: Dr. Leon James & Dr. Diane Nahl, Prometheus Books, 2000; Pgs. 158 Š 165

By Kyle Santos

 

Instructions for this oral presentation are found at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/g22-oral.htm

 

 

  1. Introduction
    1. Exercise 1: Recognition of Road Aggression
    2. Exercise 2: Types of Passenger Behavior
    3. Exercise 3: Observing Drivers

 

 

  1. Exercise 1: Recognition of Road Aggression
    1. Objectives:

                                                     i.     Help kids understand and define aggressive behavior

                                                      ii.     Help kids understand their own aggressive experiences.

    1. This exercise includes questions about:

                                                     i.     Other kids they see

                                                      ii.     Comic books and cartoons they watch

                                                        iii.     Anger levels of drivers theyÕve ridden with

                                                       iv.     Their anger levels at other drivers while a passenger

                                                      v.     Tailgating other cars

                                                       vi.     Others

    1. Kids are asked to rate these questions on a scale from 1 Š 5 (1 being not aggressive,, 5 being very aggressive)
    2. Point is that children often times carry immature concepts of aggression and simply act out in accordance with their models.  These answers should be discussed with the children to help them understand the seriousness of aggression.
    3. This is a good idea, although IÕm not entirely sure the children would fully understand.  Kids have a tendency just to listen and agree with adults.  I think itÕs a good foundation, though, for future experiences.

 

 

  1. Exercise 2: Types of Passenger Behavior
    1. Objectives

                                                     i.     Help kids focus on passenger etiquette and safety

                                                      ii.     Sensitize kids to bad behavior in cars.

    1. This is basically a checklist of good and bad passenger behavior tendencies.
    2. The basic idea is to have a child place a checkmark after each passenger behavior as he/she commits them.
    3. At the end of the trip, you review the marks and their implications with the kids.
    4. This process is repeated until the child makes no checkmarks in the bad passenger behavior section.
    5. I see this as a great tool.  Repetition makes things stick.  Whether the kid understands fully the implications of poor and proper passenger behavior is not the point.  Through this repetition, the child will be, for lack of a better word, trained to be a better passenger.  That will,  hopefully, make him/her a better driver in the future.

 

 

  1. Exercise 3: Observing Drivers
    1. Objectives:

                                                     i.     Help children focus on driving etiquette and safety

                                                      ii.     Sensitize them to aggressive behaviors

                                                        iii.     Realize the bad consequences of dangerous driving

                                                       iv.     Help them understand the benefit of emotional intelligence for drivers

    1. This exercise is also a checklist for children to complete while theyÕre passengers in a car.
    2. The task is to place a checkmark next to each action as it is committed by the driver

                                                     i.     List items include:

1.     Driver yells or swears

2.     You feel scared because the driver is being too aggressive

3.     Driver speeds

4.     Driver runs the red light

5.     Others

    1. At the end of the ride, the score is tallied and the outcome is discussed.
    2. I feel this is a great tool, also.  It not only teaches the child what is considered proper driving form and what is not, but it also allows the driver to see just what he/she is doing while driving.  The discussion, in turn, will be beneficial to all involved.

 

 

  1. Conclusion
    1. I feel that this collection of exercises could be of great benefit for both the teaching of children of driving safety at an early age, as well as the review and further development of adult drivers.  There are more exercises listed in the book, if you have any inclination.

 

Helpful Links:

http://www.drdriving.org/articles/rr.htm

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~tooley7/nonviolent.html

 

 

Homepage:

 

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/santos/home.htm