Walking is part of our everyday lives, whether that be walking around the shops, walking to school or kinder with the kids, or taking a family walk to the park on a sunny afternoon with the dog. For children, taking their first step is a big milestone and a sign of their increasing independence. Once children learn to walk you will often find that they want to walk everywhere and will sometimes insist that they don’t need help from Mum, Dad or any other adult to do so!
While walking is great for health and fitness, being a pedestrian in a traffic environment does involve a number of hazards, especially for young children.
Why are child pedestrians at risk?
Roads are designed with adults in mind, however children aren’t ‘little adults’. They don’t have as much traffic experience or knowledge and are physically and cognitively less developed than adults.
A few examples of how children’s development and traffic experience places them at greater risk:
What can parents and carers do to help children to be safe pedestrians?
The good news is that there are some simple things you can do to help keep your children safe in and around traffic and prepare them to be safe pedestrians:
Research shows that children under age 12 do not have the skills and experience to be safe in traffic, so while children will become more independent in their travel as they become older, it is still important to provide supervision and regularly talk about and practice pedestrian safety behaviours.
For more information, tips and advice on pedestrian safety, please visit https://www.kidsafevic.com.au/road-safety/pedestrian-safety
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