While the information presented here is perfect for the neurodivergent learner, it is also completely appropriate for the neurotypical student.

At this point, I’ve trained over a thousand students who learn differently.  While each learner experiences unique hurdles and challenges dependent upon their own diagnoses, support network, personal maturity and life experience, this collection has allowed me to establish some broad benchmarks.  In general, the entire process (from first drive through licensure) takes between 60 and 75 hours of hands-on, practical driving practice to complete.  That’s an average, so there are outliers on both ends, but it gives us a starting point.

I’m sharing this information because I want everyone – students, parents, caregivers, counselors – to understand the whole process. It is important for us to all have reasonable expectations when it comes to timeline for completion.  Learning everything needed to survive independently while operating what is essentially a 3,000 lb. ballistic missile at speeds up to 90 feet per second while negotiating shared space with thousands of other road users – it’s complex, and it takes time.  And a whole lot of practice.  

How do those hours break down?  Generally, like this:

STAGE 1 (the first 20 hours)

The first 20 hours are dedicated to achieving competency with the most basic technical skills, including speed and lane position management, proper stops and starts, lane tracking through turns, and proper control through curves and hills.  This is Stage 1.  The majority of this training is done on two-lane roads in broad daylight and light-moderate traffic density.

There are three common mistakes parents and driving instructors make during Stage 1. The first is front-loading, which means forcing mastery of all of the interior vehicle controls at the beginning. This serves only to confuse and create anxiety. During initial drives, just put on the hazard lights and practice. You won’t be changing lanes, so why mess with the mirrors? You won’t be driving at night, so don’t worry about the headlights. You won’t be driving in the rain, so don’t worry about the windshield wipers. Teach those controls later, when they become contextually necessary.

The second most common mistake is putting the student into conditions beyond their abilities, like immediately taking them onto the highway or into busy urban streets. Too much too quickly is a recipe for failure. Third, don’t worry about or place too much emphasis on mistakes in judgment or other executive functioning skills in this early stage – we aren’t training those skills in more than a remedial level at this point, so don’t put too much weight on mistakes.

Stage 2 (hours 21-40)

Stage 2 ups the complexity level.  We begin building competency with lane merges and lane changes, multilane travel, more dynamic and heavier traffic flow, including urban environments, and we can begin addressing inclement weather and night driving. Highways with light traffic can be explored, and often make a great setting for learning safe lane changes.

Stage 3 (hours 40-80)

Stage 3 assumes competency has been achieved in everything mentioned above.  Here we are fine-tuning all of the decision-making challenges that may be caused by anxiety or executive dysfunction.  We spend time on problem solving and working memory tasks, hazard recognition and visual search challenges, processing speed, inhibition control and cognitive flexibility. This stage is where we really build safe, defensive drivers, but we need to do this on a solid foundation of everything learned and mastered in the first two stages.

Once satisfactory competency is achieved through all three stages, we will schedule the driving exam and review the requirements, including parallel parking. 

Because of the unpredictable nature of live, dynamic traffic environments, students sometimes are exposed to later-stage circumstances before they have built the proper foundational skills to be ready for them. If our learner is still in Stage 1 but is showing deficits in Stage 3 skills, that’s actually normal, and not necessarily a cause for concern. It’s just part of the learning process, and wouldn’t be any different than hitting an elementary school student with a calculus problem.