Teaching Aspergers to Drive

Julia from A. Auto Julia’s Driving School is a very PATIENT, Calm & Friendly FEMALE driving instructor who is Aspergers and Autism Friendly.  Julia’s softly spoken voice, understanding and kind nature enables her to have great success in teaching Aspergers to drive in Sydney’s Southern Suburbs including people with other Special Needs such as Autism Spectrum, Anxiety, Nervousness, Older age mature beginner learners, ADHD, people with Dyslexia and other Learning Difficulties.

Julia is trained in both advanced and defensive driving skills with over 23 years of teaching experience including teaching Aspergers to drive, to attain their drivers licence and then possibly even to go on to drive as part of their job in paid employment as has happened for some of Julia’s students.

There is an ever growing number of teenagers with Asperger syndrome, other forms of Autism and Special Needs that are driving or interested in learning to drive. In the past people didn’t think any kids with aspergers or autism would be interested in driving but now we’re seeing they are interested. It is important to keep an open mind and not go in thinking about their limits but intead to think about their opportunity because they will never cease to surprise you. Often when your child is learning to drive, you will see quite obvious, visible, positive flow on effects into other parts of their life and abilities which can and does include their social skills, general overall improvement in their level of self esteem, confidence, ability to concentrate and in their willingness to attempt other activities.

When teaching Aspergers to drive Julia understands that there are several factors that need to be addressed such as how to help them to learn to drive safely. For this reason Julia has Rod Style Dual Controls fitted rather than the common cheaper “floppy cable” design which DOESNOT allow the drivers pedals action to be softened. With the common cheaper “floppy cable” system the drive is less control-able. Often the drive will be quite stressful, harsh & jerky with the VERY high risk of having a rear or front-end collision if the student suddenly brakes or accelerates too hard. With the Rod Syle system, the drive is clearly smoother, SAFER and can be controlled much better and PREVENT rear or front-end collisions. 

Other things that will be covered include teaching your child how to co-operate with other road users and drivers, to be able to read nonverbal social cues such as guestures that other drivers make thought the motion of their cars like changing lanes bodly or hesitantly and also obeying the road rules but not taking things too far such as does “a broken white line’’ mean that the line is where you should stop only if you need to stop — or that you should stop every time you come to it? Obeying rules is generally a good thing, but should not be taken too far or inflexibly or without taking context into account. Julia will work on all these things including on improving your child’s ability to concentrate, understand nonverbal communication, tolerate the unexpected and also improve their multitasking skills. The pace of instruction will be slowed down, items broken down into smaller tasks so they can be worked on one at a time and there will be opportunities to includes time for role-playing situations that might fluster your child like being pulled over by a police officer. Julia will address all these things and more as part of your childs learning to drive process and provide FREE take home and online resources.