Each module teaches one skill as a principle the child can show and explain, and not as a list of rules to memorise. The pedestrian modules run in the order Kerbcraft teaches them. P1 is choosing a safe place and stopping, looking and listening. Parked cars and sightlines come next, then junctions. Cycling follows, towards Bikeability Level 2. A block lasts four weeks for the core pedestrian skills, each week pairing a rehearsal with a walk at a new site. Two bonus modules sit alongside the pedestrian and cycling strands: using a push scooter, and being a car passenger.
The four parts
| Part | Who | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Briefing | Parent | Two minutes on what we’re practising and why, with the Highway Code rule behind it |
| Rehearsal | Child, with an adult alongside | About 10 minutes in the browser |
| Real-world practice | Both | A walk of 25 to 30 minutes with things to look for and phrases to use |
| Debrief | Parent | A short checklist of what they saw on the walk |
That comes to about 45 minutes a week per skill, and about 16 weeks to cover the four core pedestrian skills. I put that figure in front of parents at the start. It’s my own estimate and not a sourced number.
The rehearsal is not designed as a solo activity. An adult stays for every session, joins in for the guided scene and the “why” questions, and watches the rest. A 6 year old can run every step from the pictures and the spoken prompts, but that’s there so a child who can’t read isn’t stuck. It isn’t the intended way to play.
A rehearsal session
- Parent start. Pick the avatar, check the sound and say whether an adult is staying.
- Retrieval scene. One scene from an earlier week, no prompts. This is spaced practice, and week 1 skips it.
- Model scene. A helper thinks aloud through one scene. In week 2: “I’m stopping before the kerb. Can I see down the road? No, the van’s in the way. I’ll walk to where I can see.” This is Kerbcraft’s first phase, where the adult shows and explains, delivered on screen.
- Guided scene. The same kind of scene with a spoken prompt at each step, and the adult joins in.
- Unaided scenes. Two or three with no prompts, where the adult only watches.
- Handover. The child gets a picture card for this week’s walk. The parent view opens on the walk, not on how the rehearsal went.
The helper is Pip, a child of about the children’s age, drawn to look androgynous and called “they”. A child figure fits the kerb view, which shows what you can see at a child’s height. An animal would weaken that.
A scene
The child gets a spoken mission, such as helping Pip get to the park. Then each scene runs in the same order:
- Choose a place. Drag Pip along the pavement on a top-down map. Moving is free and is never marked right or wrong by itself.
- Stop. Place Pip’s feet back from the kerb, at the edge, or in the road. It’s a placement, not a reaction, and nothing is timed.
- Look and listen. Each look opens a kerb-view panel showing what Pip can see from that spot, and the child drags a finger down the road in each direction. Looking is pointing. Listening is a tap on an ear, which plays a vehicle sound with a matching wave on screen, so a muted device doesn’t make it meaningless.
- Decide. Three pictures: wait, cross or move to another place. Wait lets traffic pass, then the child looks and listens again.
- Cross. Tap the point on the far pavement. Pip always walks and never runs, and running isn’t an input.
- Show why, then feedback. Praise names the behaviour (“You stopped and looked all around”). There are no points, stars or streaks.
The world is frozen while the child decides. Traffic moves only when they choose to wait, during an accepted crossing and in scripted moments, so nothing in the game puts the child under time pressure.
Showing a reason without reading
A child who can’t write can’t explain in a sentence why a place is safe. Three things stand in for that. Moving Pip from a blocked spot to a better one is itself the reason, and Kerbcraft has children lead the adult to the safer place in the same way. Each scene also asks one rotating spoken question with picture answers: a picture reason, which of two spots can see more, or what hides the traffic. From week 2 one scene a session is a fix-the-helper scene, where Pip picks a bad spot and the child shows a better one.
The reason is stored apart from the action, as unaided, with help or not asked. The parent view never reports a reason from a single answer, because a three-picture question can be passed by chance.
Four weeks of P1
| Week | New idea | Walk |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The whole routine on a clear straight street | A quiet straight road; the child shows where they’d cross and why |
| 2 | A van blocks the view, so move to where you can see | A street with parked cars or a bend |
| 3 | A destination off to one side, so cross straight and then walk along; a crossing nearby, so use it | A route with a choice to make |
| 4 | Mixed scenes, with the child leading and no model or guided scene | A mixed walk, with the child leading |
In week 3 the child shows they’ve understood the rule about using a nearby crossing by walking Pip to it, and the scene ends there. Using a crossing properly needs P2’s rules about waiting until traffic has stopped, and a simulated zebra without them risked teaching a child to rely on drivers stopping.
What the parent sees
After each walk the parent taps a checklist of things they actually saw, headed “What you saw this week”. It has no score, no total and no “all done” state, and its footer reads “This records practice, not readiness”. What they tap changes emphasis in the next session and nothing else. It never opens or locks a week, and it never decides that a child should repeat one. If a parent wants a week repeated, they choose that themselves.
Each child has their own profile with a picture avatar. The parent sets the child’s stage on it and the game never works it out from age. Where two children play the same week, each does their own stop, look and listen at every kerb on the walk. A younger child following an older one across is hazard H26 in the log.