This article presents a study of the development in children of conceptual and attention skills whose mastery seems to support successful pedestrian behaviour. The research focused on linking laboratory studies of specific skills with the deployment of these skills in actual traffic situations. A sample of children aged four to ten were shown a set of images showing some dangerous and some safe situations. In contrast to adults, relatively few children spontaneously used danger as a sorting criterion. After the children were cued to use danger as a criterion, all of them could identify some situations as dangerous, and this ability increased with age, but the number of safe situations considered dangerous also rose with age. This suggests that even fairly young children can, and often do, have a sophisticated understanding of danger, but that they are poor at applying that knowledge effectively. Attention switching and concentration were identified as two specific control processes, that relate to children's behaviour on the road. It is also possible that aspects of how children react with their parents affects the development of the control processes needed for safe road crossing. Road safety education should emphasise the development of skills for perceiving danger and controlling attention.
Abstract