Teaching Pedestrian Safety Skills to Children

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Teaching Pedestrian Safety Skills to Children

• Jada Miller, BA
• Don Rohn, MA
• John Austin, PhD
• Department of Psychology
• Western Michigan University

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FACTS

• Pedestrian injury is the 2nd leading cause of
  unintentional injury-related death among children
  ages 5 to 14
• 47,000 children, ages 14 and under, suffered
  motor vehicle-related pedestrian injuries in
  2001. 706 died from motor vehicle-related
  pedestrian injuries in 2000
• Annual cost of traffic-related pedestrian death
  and injury among children is gt 4.6 Billion

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FACTS

• Child pedestrian injuries are strongly related to
  amount of street traffic, parking and vehicle
  speed. SafeKids Survey found 65 of drivers
  exceeded posted speed limits in school zones
• Children are eight times more likely to die if
  hit by a vehicle at 30 mph vs 20 mph
• 44 of child pedestrian DEATHS occur just after
  school between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to children
  under 16 years of age.

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RESEARCH

• Salvatore (1974) found that the ability of
  children to properly discriminate between fast,
  medium, and slow speeds of vehicles was inversely
  related to age
• Dunbar, Hill, and Lewis (2001) suggested children
  be trained on abstract tasks that improve the
  response classes related to attention and
  concentration because those skills might
  generalize to novel settings

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Current Prevention Efforts

• Neighborhood and Community Coalitions such as
  SafeKIDS
• Target large audiences creating awareness and
  providing information on safety practices
• Focus on changing environment and not the
  behavior
• Assessed effectiveness of National Awareness
  Campaign

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National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

• A decline of 49 from 1990 to 2000
• Due to educational programs, increased law
  enforcement and ongoing efforts to improve
  pedestrian environments

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Yeaton and Bailey (1978)

• Six street-crossing skills to 24 elementary
  children grades K-3.
• Instructional package delivered on street corner
  including a training session with four phases.
• Average skill level improved from 44 to 97 and
  21 to 86 at two separate schools.

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Objective

• To enhance the well being and safety of children
• To identify amount of already safe behavior and
  areas needing improvement
• To modify pedestrian behavior teaching safe
  street crossing skills using low-cost efficient
  pedestrian training, reinforcement and feedback
  package
• To conduct research addressing gaps in knowledge
  and translate findings into effective
  intervention programs
• To create public awareness about the need to
  improve safety behavior of child pedestrians

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Methods

• ABA reversal experimental design with a multiple
  baseline design across settings Morning and
  Afternoon
• Morning setting Crossing guard present
• Average 31.7 participants observed
• Afternoon setting No crossing guard
• Average 12.8 participants observed
• Measured 6 street crossing behaviors
• Wait at Curb
• Look all Ways
• Watch Vehicle Distance
• Walk
• Continue to Look
• Use Cross walk
• Data collection checklist

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Methods

• Children grades 1-6
• Training, Reinforcement and Feedback Package
  proved more effective than National Awareness
  Campaign
• Training consisted of Telling them, Showing
  them, and Letting them, phases while
  reinforcing all correct behaviors
• Reinforcement and Feedback delivered on street
  corner for five days after Training

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Results

• Morning Setting percentage of correct steps
  during crossing increased from 54 during
  Baseline 1 to 73.7 during Training,
  Reinforcement and Feedback back down to 55
  during Baseline 2
• Afternoon Setting percentage of correct steps
  during crossing increased from 52.3 during
  Baseline 1 to 75.9 during Training,
  Reinforcement and Feedback back down to 59.9
  during Baseline 2

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Discussion

• Behavior was not maintained when reinforcement
  and feedback were withdrawn
• Children crossing with adults were less safe and
  adults did not correct childs unsafe behavior
• Crossing guard acts more like traffic light
  rather than educating safe street crossing
  behavior
• Future research should focus on role and duties
  of Crossing Guards and parents