Duration 2 Hours – 5/5/17

Todays Goals from previous lesson:

To get used to main roads & to get to know Roundabouts.

As I’ve said before in a previous blog, it’s pretty difficult to drive in St Albans without coming to a roundabout! So we started a discussion about this. The agreement was to focus on rbts, and just use this experience to help get used to main roads. We would deal with rbts primarily and Annie would ask for help with anything else if she needed it….or I noticed she needed a guiding hand.

‘What’s the 1st thing that’s important for you to know about rbts Annie?’

‘When to go and when to stay’

We discussed priorities at rbts, with the help of sketches that we both drew. With further Q&A Annie showed me she understood priorities at rbts.

‘Ok what’s the next thing that’s important for you to find out about?’

‘Coming up to them’

‘Ok how would you like to learn that?’

‘Can I have a go and you talking me through them?’

‘Yep of course. How many are we going to do before we stop and have a chat about them?’

‘Erm, two’

‘Cool, anything else you want to know before we have a go?’

‘No I don’t think so’

I confirmed what each of us were doing and off we went. Two mini rbts later we pulled up.

How did that go Annie?’

‘Ok I think’

‘What was ok about them?’

They seemed easier than I thought’

‘Brilliant, why?’

‘Cause you’re telling me what to do’

‘So do you want to change anything we’re doing?’

‘Not yet. Can we keep doing this?’

‘Yes of course, but can you do me a little favour….?…..At this point I wanted Annie to begin thinking about things rather than just relying on me to talk her through. I was hoping she wouldn’t feel overloaded and this idea wouldn’t be a disaster!

…..Can you pay special attention to when I’m telling you to do things and where the rbt is when I tell you?’

‘I’ll try’

Of we went. Same thing, but this time 4 rbts before we stop.

‘How were they’

‘Good’

‘Why?’

‘I’m getting more comfortable’

‘With what?’

‘You telling me what to do’

‘That’s interesting, can you tell me what you mean?’

‘I don’t need to worry about getting anything wrong’

‘Is that something that bothers you? Getting things wrong’

‘Yeah I guess’…with a shrug of the shoulders

‘Can I ask why?’

‘Because when you learn something new you want to be good at it’

(Loved that phrasing, very insightful!)

‘Ok so how do we find out if you’re good at it?’

‘If I do it by myself’

‘So which bit do you want to take away from me and be responsible for?’

‘I don’t know, maybe speed?’

‘Brilliant, I think that would be a great place to start’

I asked Annie (fingers crossed!) if she had remembered to pay attention to when I was asking her to do stuff.

‘Yes for the first 2 and then I forgot. It was a long way from the rbt’

‘Great well done for noticing’

We discussed the pro’s & con’s of preparing then and leaving it later. Annie told me that the approach speed I got her to go ‘felt calm’

‘Ok so lets see if you can create a calm approach speed before we get to the rbt’

‘Ok’ as she shuffled in her seat looking ready for the challenge.

We confirmed who would be doing what, and away we go…..4 rbts again.

Annie did pretty well (something I was getting used to). A couple were too fast (1 I had to help with the braking) and another was a little slow…really open view.

‘How did we get on Annie?’

‘Ok I guess’

‘Why do you guess?’

‘Cause some were better than others’

‘Were they all at a calm speed?’

‘No’ with a little laugh

‘How would you say you felt on the not so calm ones?’

‘Anxious probably, I didn’t really know what was going on’

We discussed what determined her calm speed to rbts. This led to deciding that how busy the rbt was and how much she could see into the right side exit had a big impact on what a calm speed would be. We then came up with a plan that after each rbt Annie would score how calm her speed was out of 10.

Off we went for another ‘lap’. Annie’s scores she gave herself pretty much was the same score in my head. Annie was raising her awareness! Really pleased for her. I asked Annie how it went.

‘Good’

‘Why?’

‘Because most of them felt calm’

‘What did you do to make them feel calm?’

‘I tried to go at the speed we talked about’

‘Ok so the fact you felt calm must have meant you got the speed right?’

‘Yeah I think so, what do you think?’ Annie was relating how she felt to how well she had done…great!

‘I think you did really well. I agree the speed felt calm as a passenger and looking at you I could see you were calm…..you oozed confidence’

Annie smiled. She had the confirmation she had done well.

‘How do feel about taking responsibility for something else?’

‘Like what?’

‘How about deciding if its safe to go’ Annie looked a little nervous.

‘Erm ok? But what if I judge it wrong though’

There was that word ‘wrong’ again. There was something causing Annie to worry about getting something ‘wrong’ Was It part of her personality….or was it me!?

‘Well what happens if you get it wrong?’

‘I might crash’

‘Will I let that happen?’

‘No I suppose not’

‘I have an idea. How about, to make you feel better, if I sense you’re going to go and it’s not safe I’ll say ‘no’?’

‘Yes please, that would be really good’

We confirmed again what each of us would be doing and headed of again, and we wouldn’t stop till we got back to Annie’s house.(7 rbts). Only once did I need to say ‘no’. Annie was really pleased she got the majority of her decisions correct. She seemed proud of herself. I think it’s really important for someone like Annie to feel this & have the acknowledgement she isn’t getting things ‘wrong’. Me thinks this will give us a better chance of exploring how she feels about ‘getting things wrong’ and how it manifests itself.

I asked Annie what she did well today, and what she enjoyed doing.

‘All went quite well. Rbts were good. They weren’t as bad as I thought, & I got used to the speed’

We set some goals for next time……all to do with getting ‘comfortable’ with rbts.

I asked Annie if she could have a little think about ‘doing stuff wrong’ and whether she has noticed it in other areas of her life e.g. school, home, swimming, etc, and what ‘doing things right’ means to her.

We would explore this next time……..