Stop, Look, Listen, Think

For a learner with complex ASN, the only way to effectively learn road safety skills is to practise.

Road Safety Scotland understands the difficulties associated with this. For example, some parents/carers are concerned it will encourage the learner to independently cross the road, despite having little or no risk awareness. Others may struggle to prevent the learner from running away, or find it difficult to get them to listen to instructions. Some may feel professionals are better equipped to teach these skills.

From the perspective of education professionals, challenges may include maintaining safe staff-to-child ratios or finding suitable roads in the community where road safety skills can be practised.

‘Stop, Look, Listen, Think’ is not something that comes naturally to young people with complex ASN. All too often, there are ‘near misses’ where the learner is distracted, lacks impulse control, and has slower processing speeds, so they run out in front of vehicles without looking. For example, the learner may be looking for their favourite colour car or brand, a nearby shop selling something they like, the patterns of the road markings, the reflection of themselves in a nearby window, or become distracted by the sensation of the clothing they are wearing.

However, learners showing independence, competence, and understanding of road safety should be encouraged and supported to develop their skills further at every opportunity. Regularly repeating these skills helps to establish them in the long-term memory, supporting the learner into adulthood.

Explain to the learner that ‘stop’ means physically stopping at a roadside, on pavements and walkways, in car parks, by driveways, or at any point along your walking route.

It’s safest to cross the road where there is a clear, open space on the other side that allows you to step directly onto the pavement.

It’s also important for drivers to see you clearly.

It’s important to cross the road in a straight line, and not diagonally.

If there’s a crossing nearby, then you should use this. Crossings may include pelican and zebra crossings, pedestrian islands, bridges, and subways. There may also be safe crossing points controlled by a school patrol person, police officer, or traffic warden.

Always avoid crossing the road between parked cars, on blind bends, and close to the brow of a hill where drivers can’t see you and you can’t see them.

Stop before you reach the edge of the pavement so you don’t get too close to the traffic. This allows you to assess the road conditions and environment before safely crossing.

‘Wait’ is another concept that can be difficult to learn. Often, young people with complex ASN find waiting for things challenging, and the waiting itself can lead to dysregulation, which can result in them unsafely crossing the road.

The learner may see something distracting and feel motivated to walk into the traffic to get it. So it’s important to help them control impulsive responses.

Teaching the learner how to wait

Giving the learner as many opportunities as possible to practise waiting for something, with daily repetition in many different contexts, should help them transfer these skills to waiting for a short period of time when learning about road safety.

Choose an item or activity you know the learner is highly motivated by, such as blowing bubbles. Introduce the bubbles, together with a visual and vocabulary about waiting, then blow the bubbles. To begin with, the length of time they wait may only be a few seconds, but this can be increased to several minutes, or longer, as the learner becomes more familiar with waiting for something to happen. Commenting on them waiting, and praising them, will encourage them to seek more of the motivating item.

Knowing how to ‘stop’ and ‘wait’ could one day save the learner’s life. So, it’s invaluable to persevere with ‘stop’ and ‘wait’ activities to support their development.

Learners with some independence and understanding of road safety can also be taught: ‘Danger, Stop, Get help’. This concept involves looking at dangerous scenarios, thinking about who can help, and knowing how to get that help.

Many learners can turn their heads left and right, but they may struggle to understand that they need to look for oncoming cars and judge whether it’s safe to cross, all without getting distracted.

Traffic can appear from any direction and at any speed. Encourage the learner to look all around, in every direction, whilst listening for vehicles.

In the UK, when standing on the pavement looking towards the road, vehicles approach from the right. So, we always look to the right first to check for approaching vehicles.

After looking to the right, we look left. Then we look right again to double check the road is clear and safe to cross.

While crossing the road, it’s important to continue looking right and left, just in case there’s traffic you didn’t see when looking the first time or something appears suddenly, such as a cyclist or emergency vehicle.

It’s also important to look for cyclists and motorbikes that may appear between lanes of traffic.

Explain to the learner that you can usually hear diesel and petrol vehicles before you see them.

But remember, there are also electric vehicles on the road, which are very quiet, so you may not hear them. That’s why it’s important to look for vehicles as well as listen for them.

Learners with deafness or vision loss are often accompanied by a supporting adult or an assistance dog, or both, to help them look and listen when crossing the road.

The idea behind ‘Think’ is to help the learner to consider their environment and what’s nearby to them.

Encourage them to think about the following:

• Is there traffic coming towards you? If so, wait until it has passed, and then look again.
• How quickly are the vehicles moving? Even if they seem far away, they may reach you very quickly. Do you have enough time to cross safely?
• Is there a safe place nearby to cross the road, such as a zebra crossing?

If the learner has been waiting for a while due to busy roads, they may become dysregulated and require additional time to cross. Bear in mind drivers may not be aware the learner has complex ASN.