Driving and ADHD

• It’s a gamble
• Potential bumps in the road
• Ways to avoid those bumps

It’s a gamble

Parents are always concerned if their teens have ADHD that they will become dangerous drivers.  This is a realistic worry; however, there are a range of possibilities.  Some teens with ADHD have greater incidences of traffic accidents than other kids without it, but that doesn’t mean that the child with ADHD sitting in front of you is one of those people who will have accidents.  It is something for parents to be aware of, however, not to over-react about with their children.

Eugene D’Angelo, PhD, Chief, Division of Psychology

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Potential bumps in the road

Driving requires that you be able to attend and focus and manage multiple things. It also requires you to follow rules, stop and think, and not be impulsive Adolescents who have ADHD may not move around as much as when they were kids, but they are hyper-responsive.  Their impulsivity may be in the choices that they make.  They often struggle with taking their time to problem solve and thinking through questions and answers.  Impulsivity and how that implicates choices when driving is a concern.  If the adolescent is hyperactive, he or she is going to have a hard time attending and focusing while driving.  Kids who have ADHD can have visual-spatial issues, too, so it might be hard for them judging distances and spaces when driving.  It’s really going to be a struggle for kids with ADHD to drive.

Marcus Cherry, PhD, Child and Pediatric Psychologist

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Ways to avoid those bumps 

Most times parents of kids with ADHD are concerned already that their kids are going to struggle with driving.  Most of it comes from parents’ concern that the kids can’t handle the responsibility of driving because they haven’t shown responsibility in other areas.  Some parents negotiate with their adolescents about things they can do to ensure that they will have a responsible understanding of what it is to drive a car and then work step by step to do that— for example, going through a driving program and seeing how that goes.  It’s also important to have them do other things in other places so that learning how to drive a car is a privilege that the adolescent has earned.  Showing an increase in compliance with homework, with class work, with a job, and with whatever home rules an adolescent’s family has are all ways to demonstrate some of the responsibility that is needed for being able to drive a car. 

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