Young children's learning on road‐crossing simulations

Previous studies have characterised young children as unskilled road‐users. Provision of training and practice in basic road‐crossing skills may reduce children's risk on the roads, as increasing automatisation of these skills will free attentional resources for more demanding aspects of road‐user behaviour. Previous work by Lee and colleagues suggests that training on a road‐crossing simulation called the Pretend Road improves various aspects of young children's road‐crossing skill. The present investigation extends these findings by reporting on the generalisability and durability of these improvements. Five‐year‐old children were trained on one of two road‐crossing simulations and assessed on three occasions after training. The results indicate that substantial transfer occurs between training tasks, but long‐term retention appears to be weak.