review of the literature

Pedestrian injuries are among the most frequent and serious causes of injury to children. Exploration of an appropriate and effective training program is needed. Many children’s pedestrian training programs have been implemented in the past in attempts to alleviate this problem, but they have been unsuccessful in transferring the knowledge the children learned to actual behaviours exhibited. Literature suggests developing a program where children can not only learn about safe pedestrian behaviours, but be given the opportunity to discuss possible actions and outcomes with their peers under guidance of an adult. To help children in the generalization of knowledge to behaviour, training programs should also give children the chance to practice newly learned skills in a simulated environment using computer-based technology. Virtual environment training programs have been successful in the past, especially computer games, which are both educational and entertaining and thus appealing to children. According to literature, development of a virtual environment pedestrian training program appropriate for the child’s current cognitive abilities will allow them to practice safe pedestrian practices. The skills learned from such a program can directly transfer to behaviours in real-life situations, and would contribute to decreasing the prevalence of childhood pedestrian injuries. hildren unnecessarily suffer from pedestrian injuries at a level much higher and much more severe than that of adults.9 In an attempt to reduce these high injury levels