The Occupation of Driving: A Guide for Occupational Therapists Working with Adolescents Who Have ADHD

Driving is a rite of passage for all teens with or without a disability. Individuals with ADHD are at a far greater risk of being in an accident or receiving a traffic violation as a compared to their developmental counterparts. In addition, parents and practitioners are often unaware of an individual’s readiness to drive skills prior to receiving formal driver’s education. Thus, this can be a stressful transition or learning process with individuals with ADHD and their families. For parents, practitioners, and teens, it is important that they understand the resources available to them and the steps to access those resources in order to promote safe participation in the occupation of driving. After an initial literature review and additional research, the authors decided to create a driving resource guide for occupational therapists, families, and teens to assist these individuals in addressing factors that impact occupational engagement in driving. The guide provides them with support, education, and additional resources for program development. The methodology for the development of the resource guide was a review of skills needed for readiness to drive, and provides a review of current driving resources. The resource guide was designed for use by an occupational therapist to bridge the gap in communication between occupational therapy practitioners and individuals with ADHD and their families in relation to readiness to drive. The reproducible handouts from the guide can be given to parents prior to the first occupational therapy visit. The resource guide includes information on communicating with parents and teens, role of OT, value of occupation of driving, screening and assessments, professional development resources, and program development resources