I'm a Child Passenger Safety Technician!!!

Gypsy

Senior Community Member
I got a 95% (missed five questions) on the test! When I questioned three of them, the instructor admitted that they didn't really cover those questions or talk about them at all, but I did still mark the wrong answer so it was still wrong

I passed all of my hands on skills assessments on the first attempt (they give you three). I passed all of the visual skills assessments, like on improper installation, use of aftermarket products and improperly securing the child.

I had so much fun! Especially today when we did a carseat check, I checked 5 seats in 2 hours (they allot 30 minutes per seat), and I met some awesome parents. One van came through with THREE grandmas who had a little boy so poorly secured and they *knew* it and were sooooo grateful for help learning how to install his seat properly and adjust the harness to fit him. They were the sweetest ladies, I wish my kids had three grandmas like them, they were so loving and just wanted to do the right thing! They were *so* proud of themselves when they got his seat in 100% correctly and could drive off with him as safe as could be! Sadly every single seat that came through today was improperly installed or the child was improperly secured or both. Every single seat. We checked 26 seats in 2.5 hours (the last 45 minutes we just had one car with all of us wanting to check the seats in it).
 
ADS

Gypsy

Senior Community Member
Thank you!

I am going to be going to monthly seat checks about an hour from where I live to get more hands on experience & then in early June there is a kids fair that is a HUGE Safe Kids Seat Check Event & I am looking forward to volunteering there too!

Hopefully by this fall, my friend and I will have enough experience on our own that we can do regular seat checks in our own community that is desperately lacking in child safety.
 

scatterbunny

New member
Congratulations!! :D :D :D

It sounds like it went well! Did they cover everything you thought they SHOULD cover? :p

Love the grandmas--my first install at the clinic we had was a grandma, too. :cool:
 

Gypsy

Senior Community Member
Congratulations!! :D :D :D

It sounds like it went well! Did they cover everything you thought they SHOULD cover? :p

Love the grandmas--my first install at the clinic we had was a grandma, too. :cool:

Honestly? no, not at all. We were taught the old curriculum though, and I really hope the new curriculum is much better.

They taught us to turn a 1 year old 20 pounder forward facing, and I brought a printed copy of the AAP statement, and at the seat check I taught the AAP statement to parents.

They also assumed a 40 pound 3 year old would be in a booster, and taught us that it was ok for a 30 pound 3 year old to be in a booster. The instructor also said at one seatcheck she had a 42 pound 2 year old and he was taken out of a harnessed seat and sent home in a booster -- that made me VERY sad.
 

Gypsy

Senior Community Member
A few of the questions I got wrong I chose the *right* answer for based on what I have learned in my experience and right here at carseat.org, however they were wrong answers because it didn't mesh with the curriculum.
 

scatterbunny

New member
Ahh, I get you totally. That part was frustrating to me, too--that the curriculum doesn't address any HWH seats, that we must always assume a 40 pound child goes to a booster, regardless of age, that any child over one year old who is also at least 20 pounds goes forward-facing. :(

Luckily my instructors did cover the fact that it's better to rear-face to the limits of the convertible seat as long as the height guidelines are met (which, come to think of it, I don't think they talked about the space above the top of the head, they talked about height limits in manuals :( ), and probably thanks to my prodding talked more about HWH seats than they probably would have.

My instructors did stress the fact that our test questions would not reflect best practice rules for extended rear-facing and harnessing, and that helped a lot when it came to taking the test.

It's so hard to think the "right" answer for a 2-3yo, 40# child is a bpb, isn't it? :(
 

Gypsy

Senior Community Member
Yes Jenny, that was exactly the problem.

One that I missed that they didn't cover was about being FAA approved, it was a test question & I can't remember the wording, but I got it wrong. They never covered it in class... we must have been running behind, we had a few people in the class either without kids or who haven't dealt with carseats for their own kids for more then a decade & they just weren't getting it -- at all.
 

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