Learning to drive with ADHD

[Anonymous]

Tell me about teaching your ADHD teen to drive please. Welcome all tips and advice on how to make them into a SAFE driver.

[Anonymous]

We decided not to. He is just too slow at processing information to drive safely at this point. Our psychiatrist said "driving is not a life skill, driving is optional" and though that surprised me, it has helped me let go of the idea for now.

[Anonymous]

My teen with severe ADHD learned to drive during the Covid lockdown, because there was nothing else to do. He was super anxious about it, and learned incredibly slowly. It wasn't the best experience.

In more normal circumstances, maybe I wouldn't have pushed him into it. ADHD brains mature slower, so maybe there's no actual benefit to forcing them to learn to drive when they're teenagers.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter wasn’t ready at 16 so we tried again at 17. We only practice when she feels in a good headspace to drive, and like others we took it slow. I have confidence she will get there but she definitely wasn’t ready to start at 16.

[Anonymous]

Mine does not, but it's due to epilepsy. It's okay, DC will need to live in places with good public transit forever but DC is fine with that. It's really not a big deal unless you make it a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine does not, but it's due to epilepsy. It's okay, DC will need to live in places with good public transit forever but DC is fine with that. It's really not a big deal unless you make it a big deal.

I didn't drive until I was 18/19 for similar reasons. We will probably take it slow with my AuDHD/epileptic daughter. I want her to learn to drive, but she isn't really interested in actually driving. That's ok. It isn't a requirement, but I think it's a useful skill to have and it's easier to get the license now rather than later. I suspect she won't drive much as an adult and that's ok too.

[Anonymous]

I have two ADHD kids and both enjoy driving and think it is "fun" and stimulating. Both have the radio blasting while they drive.

Neither has had any major issues or any different experience than my other kids.

[Anonymous]

Depends on your kid. For many with ADHD (myself included) there is finally enough going on to stimulate me. You really do have to pay attention to everything (what every single car around you is doing or may do, what is happening two lights ahead of you, pedestrians and bikers, road signs, etc.) and if you can blast energetic music, it's like medicine for the brain.

[Anonymous]

Mine had a slow motion accident the second time driving on a real street. Kid turned a corner going about 5 miles per hour, cut the corner too closely, and just panicked and shut down as I yelled to stop. We just slowly rolled up onto the curb and over a No Parking sign before gently coming to a stop. Kid was just frozen. The sign got caught underneath the car and ruined the suspension. Very expensive accident, given the low speed and no other vehicles being involved. Car was in the shop for a while. Lesson learned. No more driving lessons when kid isn’t fully medicated.

We’re taking things slowly keeping the lessons short. We’re also helping kid practice following commands quickly (when we’re not even in the car) by calling out “stop,” or “turn left.” The idea is to get kid comfortable with reacting quickly before they have to do it behind the wheel.

[Anonymous]

I have ADHD, though it's never been treated. It had no impact on my learning to drive. The one thing I had a hard time with was stopping earlier rather than later, and leaving more space between me and the car in front of me, but those were visual perception issues.

[Anonymous]

Just start in parking lots and see how it goes and go from there. Without even trying it’s impossible to know how they’ll react.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine had a slow motion accident the second time driving on a real street. Kid turned a corner going about 5 miles per hour, cut the corner too closely, and just panicked and shut down as I yelled to stop. We just slowly rolled up onto the curb and over a No Parking sign before gently coming to a stop. Kid was just frozen. The sign got caught underneath the car and ruined the suspension. Very expensive accident, given the low speed and no other vehicles being involved. Car was in the shop for a while. Lesson learned. No more driving lessons when kid isn’t fully medicated.

We’re taking things slowly keeping the lessons short. We’re also helping kid practice following commands quickly (when we’re not even in the car) by calling out “stop,” or “turn left.” The idea is to get kid comfortable with reacting quickly before they have to do it behind the wheel.

Yes, one thing we talked about in detail was how freezing or deciding at full speed she no longer was able to drive simply wasn’t an option. She had to at least be able to slow down and stop.

[Anonymous]

Our psychiatrist said that driving without medication should be a non starter for our teen boy.

[Anonymous]

Don’t assume it’s an issue. Some kids with ADHD do fine. Mine is now an adult but we just took it slow. She got her learners as soon as she was eligible. We literally did 10-20 minute drives so it took a long time to hit 60 hours. I used lots of praise. I made sure to always emphasize minimizing distractions and being aware of other drivers, pedestrians and animals along with street signs. We used I Drive Smart and the instructors were great. She worked with 3 different ones who provided very positive feedback which gave me confidence that a variety of experts thought she was safe. By about 40 hours she was pretty proficient and by the time we completed the 60 i had complete confidence in her abilities. I would stress that being properly medicated is vital!

[Anonymous]

I have two with adhd. One did fine and learned how to drive safely fairly quickly. The other one also has very slow processing speed. That DC took about 3 times longer. (Over 2 years.) But is now a safe and competent driver.