Should 5-Year-Olds be Driving?

So, should the kids that I'm chatting about passenger safety with in this photo (4.5 - 5 year olds) be driving? Well, probably not without lots and lots of our help. Sound silly? Of course they shouldn't be driving. They haven't even developed enough to reach the top shelf in closet and get down a hat.

OK, add 10 years to the faces in that photo. Now they're of age to take drivers training and be on Michigan roadways (14 yrs, 8 months). Are they old enough to be driving? Well, probably not without lots and lots of our help, you say. But, why do you say that? At what age did they magically develop enough to do that safely? Can you just tell?

Now, they've finished segment 2 of driver training, they're 16 or so, have met all of the criteria for driving on their own in Michigan and are ready to drive their kid brothers/sisters to the mall without lots and lots of our help. Right? Must be- we've all decided that it's OK and they look very much like adults. After all, they can reach the top shelf in the closet now. Hmmmmm, what about that top shelf?

Little kids (like the ones in the photo), need lots and lots of our help to be safe. That's what I used to tell safety patrollers. Little kids only have two speeds- stop and RUN. Not because they're naughty, but because they're, well, little kids. So, we need to help them until they develop the higher function decision making parts of their brain that deal with actions and consequences. Those parts of their brains (real anatomical body parts) have not developed any more than their height has developed enough to reach the top shelf. They can't reach that top shelf no matter how much I try to ask them to or tell them how important it is. What hasn't developed yet, hasn't developed yet.

So, now we've got that 16 year-old taking their little sister to dance lessons after their vast 30 hours of classroom training and 56 hours (perhaps) of driving experience. The good news is that in another five or seven years (more or less) those higher function decision making parts of the brain that deal with actions and consequences will have developed. Yup, it's that darn problem again- what hasn't developed yet, hasn't developed yet. Yea, I know- the bodily structures for reaching the top shelf in the closet are fully developed now, but the bodily structures dealing with decision making and consequences just aren't. No, not even if we tell them how hard to try or how important it is. What ain't there, ain't there.

Hopeless? Nope. I've often asked a room full of adults how many were safety patrollers. I see a lot of hands go up. Well adults, what do you owe these new drivers? Yup, the same thing you pledged to provide for the little kids when you were in 5th grade: lots and lots of help during this crucial developmental stage. You've got to protect and defend them until they can reach that top shelf.

Be Safe.