Basic Talk Through

Being able to pace yourself, allowing time to check the road ahead and to sides and behind you whilst watching the learner to identify any errors, give directions and also instruction is a skill in itself.  Coupled with this skill is providing talk throughs, these can assist the learner driver to remember systems and techniques required to develop in the process of learning to drive.  It is to be remembered that these "talk throughs" act as part of the already present ongoing support and safety aspect you are providing.

Once again preparation is key and there are a few exercises you can practice to improve your skill at providing basic "talk throughs".

 Think of a task you know well and perform on a daily basis without even thinking about it, try not to think of anything driving related, we will get to that later.  Choose a task such as making a cup of tea, a sandwich or starting up a computer for example.  Anything you consider 'easy'.

Before you complete the task talk yourself through what you are going to do, this will represent a portion of your instruction with a learner driver.  It could be learning a new task for the learner and therefore you may do a basic "talk through" and discussion before again talking through the task on the move.  If you like record yourself on the phone so you can see how you get on, think about how you might describe what needs to be done to someone who may have no idea of how to complete the task.  Areas to look out for can be as follows:

Example:  Making a cup of tea.

• Does the person you are teaching this task to understand and recognise 'common' terms, i.e. boil the kettle.
• Does the person you are teaching this task to understand why they are doing it?
• What competence level might the person learning the task have?
• Do they have experience doing a similar task?

If you can try and keep the basic "talk through" down to less than 2 minutes.

Once you have done this practice giving the same basic "talk through" whilst doing the task yourself, try not to do a commentary of the task (i.e. talk as you do things) but give yourself prompts before each stage , for example: now place the tea bag into the cup, then do just that.  The aim of this exercise is to get you thinking in advance to outline tasks that you may feel easy, tasks someone else may not.

Finally when you are out driving, to the shops or work etc. practice your commentary driving, talk about what you are doing and why, mention things like mirror checks, gear changes, changes of direction , position etc.  and why.  The skill here is to avoid your commentary from becoming reflective.  Try to keep in the moment, better still slightly predictive.