Can your child ride a bike??

[LIZARD]

Hey, Good Peoples. :)

I'm curious about this, because it's always amused and bemused me that our kids have a rep for being fearless, yet Drew has always been terrified of things like falling off his bike, so even now, at nearly 13, he still has not mastered this skill. Well, just yesterday, he told his therapist he wants to learn to ride without the training wheels. :) His b-day is the 23rd, so I'm thinking of getting him a new bike, since he's essentially outgrown this one.

For those of you whose kids can ride a bike, was it harder than normal for them to learn? How did you teach them? Any differently than we learned? (I fell about 3 times and then figured it out.)

TIA for your thoughts!

LIZARD :)

[Mother's Heart]

oh oh! let me give you a link.

And yes...my son can ride,....with a caveat... hecan't brake yet, and is a terror on the road. He's not afraid as far as I can tell. Perhaps I'll ask. I bet he's more so than I know...but not unreasonably so to the point of making him unwilling to ride.

CHeck this out.
trying to get the link right. Here it is:
http://www.losethetrainingwheels.org/

my son learned by good ole determination. For FOUR years...MOST days, even on less nasty winter days I took him out on our street and worked on it. At that time almost everything he learned was hand over hand...or in this case hand over foot/body/leg/hand whatever. At various stages, as I ran by him I was holding the bike up, holding him on the seat, holding his hands on the handle bars, holding his head up for him to look where he needed to look, blocking his view from passing shiny spokes and such (that tended to send him off the rode as they passed ;)) and pushing on his thighs to show him pedalling, holding his feet on the pedals (briefly..he'd learned this on his trike but one leg is paretic, so a challenge still) and trying to teach him to brake on the pedals with H-o-F. yeah right...we haven't gotten there yet. I'm working on a rear hand-brake next. He didn't understand that before but I think he might now.

So....all ths time I'm running by his bike and working so hard to teach him to ride and all the while I"m doing it I'm trying to push this thought out of my head: "WHY on EARTH am I teaching him to ride, when I don't see him ever having the judgement to ride safely? I truly thought I was nuts....but taught him anyway...and he DID learn. The only thing remaining is to learn
safe rules of the road, and how to brake the thing instead of putting his feet down. Crashes were pretty rare for D. I was surprised at his ability to balance. All the rest came with hard work and perseverance. He unfortunately lost almost ALL of his abilities a few years back and has been re-learning. At that time he lost mobility too due, to contractions in his legs, but now that he has it back I haven't dived back in to bringing out the bike. I know he wants to ride...but I have to have the inner resources available to do it. We don't really have a benign safe place to ride....and last time we rode on the railtrail we got cussed out and an editorial written. :rolleyes: Anyway.....he's six foot tall now and his bike is pretty big. Too fast for me to control on foot....and I can't do it from my bike.
My advice is to get the boy competent before he's too big to ride away fast .

my DD got a transport bike (adult bike which folds up...really cool) It's a 20"er but it's frame is bigger, so no knee-knocks on the handle bars for an adult.. She wanted one she wouldn't be terrified to ride because she couldn't see the ground (low vision). I think I need to get DS one.

i think the transport bike was a Kent brand, I think. she ordered it on-line.

okay...big side-track there.

We found training wheels to be useless...partly because none seemed big enough/strong enough to work for him. I tried several kinds. They would break and didn't support properly either. Anyway...I'm not sure training wheels are such a grand idea anyway. Go read around that web site...see what you can discover there?

[Mother's Heart]

yes, harder than normal to learn. My kid is VERY dyspraxic. AND besides the motor planning problems he also has muscle issues that many autistics don't. So, EVERYThing motoric is harder for him to learn. I know that's not the case for all folks with Autism.

[Mother's Heart]

here's DD's bike:
http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/01/67/51/52/0001675152098_215X215.jpg

DS' is similar to this one:
http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/02/89/14/56/0002891456641_215X215.jpg

[Mayzoo]

Sweetie can't even ride a tricycle yet.....we are told this is normal. I happen to not agree that most 5 years old can ride trikes. But oh well.

Mayzoo

[LIZARD]

Sweetie can't even ride a tricycle yet.....we are told this is normal. I happen to not agree that most 5 years old can ride trikes. But oh well.

Mayzoo

I think most kids can ride a trike by 5 yo (I did; learned to ride a bike at 7 yo), but if you can't, you're not necessarily "abnormal."


LIZARD :)

[LIZARD]

oh oh! let me give you a link.

And yes...my son can ride,....with a caveat... hecan't brake yet, and is a terror on the road. He's not afraid as far as I can tell. Perhaps I'll ask. I bet he's more so than I know...but not unreasonably so to the point of making him unwilling to ride.

CHeck this out. http://www.losethetrainingwheels.org/images/site/logo4.jpg

Thanks so much for the site! I bookmarked it and will study it for ideas. :) Drew seems to be really excited about being a teenager :rolleyes:, so it may be just the ammo I need to help him learn. :D


'Preciate it!

LIZARD :)

[Mother's Heart]

Liz...i posted the link to the Lose the training wheels logo instead of the home page. I corrected it. you might want to replace your bookmark. ;)

[LIZARD]

Liz...i posted the link to the Lose the training wheels logo instead of the home page. I corrected it. you might want to replace your bookmark. ;)

Thanks, hon'. :) I got it. :)


LIZARD :)

[milivica]

Vince learned to ride a 2 wheeler in one day, about a year or more after his peers. However, when he was in early childhood and so on, omg, he absolutely had the hardest time learning to PEDAL. The shifting or feet up and down, round and round...he could keep them somewhat on the pedals if I pushed, but he couldn't even continue a pedal pattern if I stopped pushing, and for sure couldn't initiate one.

Vince though, has always been way above average in great gross motor skills, and eye hand coordination. I'm sure he gets this from his dad. I can't walk upstairs without tripping or doing some other clutzy thing. Carmen too, but not as bad as me. I'm a 'typical' clumsy aspie. "How can anyone get a D in gym?" was the angry question I got from my ma all the time in school. I'd have gotten an F, but maybe cause I showed up they passed me - actually I'm proud of myself for not giving myself paper cuts with the report card, hee hee.

[LIZARD]

"How can anyone get a D in gym?"

I got Ds and even Fs in gym! :( :rolleyes: Couldn't hit, couldn't run...still can't do any of it. :( Then I was finally told never to...in eighth effing grade after major brain surgery for the sixth time!!!! :( Don't get me wrong; I love my parents, and I realize '70s hydro kids didn't come with instruction books, but holy crap...you'd think it would have occurred to them to address that with my nsg before that point. :o :rolleyes:

(((((((((((((((((Mil)))))))))))))))))))). I feel for ya, hon'.


LIZARD :o :(

[Mayzoo]

oh and as for the cautious question---sweetie is so cautious, and she seems to inherently know her limitations, and adhere to them diligently.

[PainInTheNeck]

My 2 cents worth..........my son FINALLY learned to ride his bike at age 9. Well after the other kids. What seemed to help the most was just keeping on trying and remember that he needs to be told and taught each step. None of it was "natural" for him to think about. As soon as I realised that..things moved along better. I will probably miss some steps but this is a start: where to put his hands, that turning the handle bars turns the wheels thus makes the bike turn the way you turn the handle bars, where to put his feet, his bottom, his chest, his head, and then my husband and I just walked with him-both of us holding the seat and one of us holding a handle bar until he got more and more confident.

[Isabelle]

my son learned at 8 and again at 10, but his hands "stimming" were more important to him. another two autistics guys rode bikes, even rolled skate until they were given risperdal, then slept most of the time or "froze" into "out of it" states.

[milivica]

Lizard, omg I had to laugh yet your post made me feel so sad at the same time. I know I know, is it just UNfrigginREAL sometimes when you think about your parents' DUH factor. I love my ma, but I'd become a self abuser if Carmen could recall the same things I can, know what I mean? Man, six surgeries, holy Lord...I was just considered a total clutz, changed schools to often so didn't get a solid 'scape goat' role, and fortunately (and I'm serious) hung out with the burn outs so cut class constantly. I recall missing the entire swimming unit, and passing with a C...figure that one out...a higher grade for not coming at all. Talk about me missing a hint - I went back for the next unit!

Gosh I just want to hug you, cripe, was it even safe for you to be jostling around in gym with all the things that could have struck your head with force (soft ball which ain't soft, football, another person's head during soccer which about knocked me out once) and I didn't have surgery like you'd had.

[LIZARD]

Gosh I just want to hug you, cripe, was it even safe for you to be jostling around in gym with all the things that could have struck your head with force (soft ball which ain't soft, football, another person's head during soccer which about knocked me out once) and I didn't have surgery like you'd had.

We know now that it probably woulda been okay, but back then, no one knew much of anything. I know they didn't want me to be treated "differently," and Dad told me he tried to explain some of it to one of my teachers, only to be met with, "Is it contagious??!!" :rolleyes: :mad: What gets me is that never once did either of my parents even mention that they had addressed this with my neurosurgeon. WTFFFFF??!! :rolleyes: :mad: :( He asked when I was a month old if I'd ever be able to have kids, but he never addressed this??!! HUH??!! Brilliant...:rolleyes: (I last had shunt surgery right before 8th grade started and was not permitted to participate in PE for the year, teacher's orders. No skin off my nose. :rolleyes: )

My problems with playing any of it was that I had no coordination, but of course, no one ever bothered to work with me on it, either. That's why I wrote about Drew and riding the bike. His coordination is actually very good; I just don't want him ostracized for what he's not able to do.

LIZARD :o

[milivica]

Though Vince has always been blessed with dh's excellent gross motor skills, eye hand coordination...all that 'sporty' stuff, he has always been 'stiff' when it came to having to balance - but only when he was not in control. So, walking across the top of a swingset, no problem, the roof - also no problem (eek!) but another thing that moved such as the big ball they'd roll him on top of in OT, very stiff and tense so not good at that balance or relaxation wise.

Sadly for Vince, when I still thought I could basically 'discipline' the autism 'out' of him, as though it were his choice...when he'd pitch fits and throw the bike and kick it and so on, I finally told him something really insane like I'd spank him if he didn't get up and ride that thing already. I KNEW he could, but knew he wouldn't cause he is so intensely ingrained with feeling like he will fail, all his other wise pleasant memories end with him failing at something or some bad memory...anyhow I was desperate to give him a boost to make him try with some degree of resilience, he did, and rode instantly and since. NOT that I would recommend what I did, and I would not do it again.

So, while there might be the clutz factor going on with Drew, there might also be that overwhelming sense of incompetence us asd's tend to have that make the lack of 'try try again' spirit nt's tend to have. Not in all situations and at all times. Anyhow, what I'm saying, is sometimes it's not all physical, I know Vince tends to feel like he will fail before he even begins where as Carmen is totally "I'm not quitting mom until I do it". That makes a big difference in the ability to succeed, it's got to.

I really hear you with the worry about being ostracized...that's why I pushed Vince. All this bug and snake stuff here, that initially was cause I knew he was a big guy, and feared he'd be afraid of critters and that would give other kids an easy way to tease him and throw stuff he feared on him, etc...

What is Drew's attitude about riding - which he will do - but does he have a great try try again spirit, or is he feeling defeated before he begins. Just wondering. What is your spirit, is it casual and confident, "you're ok, you'll do this, c'mon we're going to try again" or is your energy worried...do you understand what I'm asking? Though I seem to continually forget and have to remind myself daily, often daily...much of what Vince accomplishes starts out with the initial and ongoing 'energy' I project with my internal feelings and thoughts. If I'm too compassionate and concerned for him, for his future, cause of the love I feel...we don't get as far. If I treat him a little more detached like he was someone elses kid, without the 'emotion' but with more focus on what HE needs to feel and do to accomplish the task at hand, he gets further faster.

Also, who ever already said this was sure right, it's just not as natural for some of our kids, all that coordinated movement simultaneously...for some nt's too. Those motor skills can be a biatch! Gotta have that brain synaps stuff firing in sequence and unity. But for our asd kids, there is an element of resilience missing too, that keeps them focused on the failing while they learn rather than focused on determination that they will do this. If you know he has the ability to do this just waiting to bloom, I'd try and remove your emotional mom side, and turn on sort of a teacher side, know what I mean? Might not apply to you, but for me, when I see 'my son' instead of 'a young man' I tend to enable him to be a little boy, cause he knows I CARE so he plays that against my heart. Anyhow, I can't wait to hear he's riding, you'll do it, he'll do it, LiiiiZARD, LiiiiiZARD rah rah rah!

[MomOTwins]

Ladies, what a coincidence! We start bike camp tomorrow, with the Albany autism group that is using Lose the Bike as their program! I'll let you know how "BIKE CAMP' goes this week, we've got 5 days of 1.5 hours each day (Mom can't even be around during the training), and the trainers will be working with both of my boys (Andrew is HFA, but loves to ride his too-small bike with training wheels; Patrick is a little Aspie, and takes direction with a lot of backtalk and complaining). This should be VERY interesting! :rolleyes:

Kim

[Mother's Heart]

You are the one I think who drew LTTW program to my attention. :) I hope the camp is a huge success for both your boys. It SHOULD be very interesting. Can't wait to hear how it was. :)

[milivica]

Now that I have been thinking more about the learning to ride a bike days, what I'm really wondering is how the heck did I run/bend/push the kids behind their 2 wheelers down the block over and over without killing myself!

[Lara]

I think it all depends on the child. Tics were a problem for my son riding a bike but not in the beginning. Both my son and daughter were riding pretty early but then my son stopped for a few years when his tics were really bad. His arms used to flail about a lot and he had multiple tics from head to toe. He couldn't keep control of the bike at one stage even though he'd always managed to do that just fine, and then after one pretty bad accident where he fell under the railing of a walkway bridge in the local park and down a little rocky embankment, it seemed like a good time to give it a break for a while. Yikes, thank goodness for compulsory helmets here. Eventually he was back and able to ride just fine. I think the time when his tics were really bad and he couldn't ride the bike safely was also the time when his writing skills deteriorated and it was a pretty difficult time. When he was younger than that he was actually ambidextrous which was interesting. When he played cricket or other ball games he'd bowl with one arm and bat with the other. He lost that ability at the time when everything else was snowballing a little out of control for him healthwise.

[RathyKay]

Tom still hasn't mastered the tricycle, so I haven't felt the need to buy him a bike. He sits in the trike and pushes his feet on the ground to make it go. I've done tons of pushing his thighs to get it going, and I've squatted in front with my hands on his feet (and pedals) and pushed that way. He's still not ready.

[cckids]

Zach is 6--and he is a big guy for 6. He literally just got the 2 wheel thing just this week, but he is doing it on his little sister's bike (the little 10" wheel job". Mind you, the boy is 49" tall and weighs 60lbs but I think he needed the security of being closer to the bike. He still won't let me take the training wheels of his bike which is a little bit bigger.

[mc4_a]

She can ride a bike with training wheels. We've not tried a real bike yet. She can ride a scooter like a pro so I think she'd be ok.

[The Pogue]

My daughter learned to ride a 2-wheeler shortly before turning 6. At age 6 1/2 she got a horrible case of chicken pox, which went right up her nose into her sinus cavity and brain. After recovering, she had to relearn many gross and fine motor skills, including riding a bike, swimming, skating, and writing her name. Her grapho-motor coordination never did return to pre-illness quality, but the gross motor skills were recovered fairly quickly.

[MomOTwins]

Well, I just have to say - If you can get this group of folks and their program out in your part of the country, go go go!!!!!

We had about 10 kids in our class, 1/2 had obvious physical signs of Downs syndrome, the other 1/2 had other disabilities.

Each child got two "spotters" who walked or ran with them as they rode the special bikes (see their website for pix of the bikes, they have big rollers on the back instead of wheels). As the kids get more skilled, the rollers get smalller, so that by the end of the week, they may have a wheel there rather than a roller.

Andrew graduated down one roller size after about 20 minutes, was speeding around the track so fast that his spotters were jogging to keep up with him. Patrick was riding smoothly but cautiously for most of the session, then got speedy toward the end. They have the kids ride for 75 minutes without taking a break (unless they need one for bathroom or meltdown). A couple of kids got tired/bored/anxious during the ride, got off their bikes and were calmed down by the spotters or their parents.

We had the class inside a local college's hockey arena, so the parents got to sit in the bleachers and watch while the kids had a contained space to pedal in (no traffic - other than the few kids who melted down in the middle of the floor).

All in all, a great time and both boys are looking forward to going back to "bike camp" tomorrow.

[Lara]

That's wonderful, MomOTwins!
Glad it went so well. That's a great thing for them to be doing.

on a slightly different note...
do you all have horse riding associations there in your country for children? I was just reading a site from my country called Riding for the disabled and some, not all obviously, of the benefits are quite similar to what bike riding would teach. I think it looks great. Possibly wouldn't suit all children though.

http://www.rda.org.au/webcontent6.htm
Riding Develops Abilities.

[Keggy]

my dd learned to ride a bike, but she was older. In all fairness though I wouldn't let her practice on our block, and it wasn't very often she had the opportunity to practice... but we always had a bike for her.... still do.

[MomOTwins]

Day 3 of bike camp started off with a chance to ride a modified tandem bike with one of the trainers - kiddo in front "controlling" the direction, but trainer in back doing the actual controlling of where they went. Both boys cruised along looking very satisfied with the move to a really big bike.

After that ride, they parked the bike and had the kids try real 2-wheelers without training wheels! AUGH!!!! :eek: I had a total panic attack, but they had a grab handle on the back of the bike for the trainer to hold if there was a problem. Both guys did GREAT!!! Patrick got the idea of the hand brake down very quickly, I think that Andrew will figure that out today. After a few test runs back and forth in a straight line from trainer to trainer, they got to do laps around the arena. What fun! Both boys left camp glowing with pride, and poor old Mom had to run out and buy their new bikes, as they may be riding their own bikes today!!

Wow, sign up all your friends, get a non-profit group to sponsor the trainers, but don't miss the chance to have your kids try this method. Don't think that your child will be the exception to the rule regarding whether this is do-able. In our group, there are several Downs Syndrome kids, several autistic spectrum kids, and one girl with cerebral palsy (with leg braces). All of these kids (even the severely autistic one) are pedaling along and doing great. The trainer that I spoke with has even trained kids who were post-stroke and had no motor control on one side of their body. I am just amazed at how cool this is, can't stop smiling! :D

[Mother's Heart]

This is SO exciting!!!
I am thrilled for your boys!
After we've heard "the last chapter" on how this week went for you I'd like to share your comments with our county agency caseworker. Would that be alright with you?

Got any ideas of how you can celebrate/acknowledge the boys BIG achievement this week? I know one thing, no matter what congratulations you give them NOTHING can satisfy more than the satisfaction and pride they must feel of being able to RIDE! :D (well, getting their very own new bikes, knowing they can ride them, must be pretty exciting too ;) ) It sounds like you made a wonderful choice, signing the boys up for this camp. :D :) :D

[milivica]

OH NICE!!! Sounds like a wonderful way to learn, what nice experiences and memories for everyone!

Can you post a bit about the group/method? I'd like to send it to the schools out here (anonymously, cause my school hates my guts).

Really sounds great, I can 'feel' the fun in you post. Very nice!
Mili

[Mother's Heart]

MILI....here is their website.

http://www.losethetrainingwheels.org/

[MomOTwins]

Cue the happy dancers, the sparklers, and the confetti!!!!

Two new two-wheel bike riders are loose on the road in my neighborhood!!!! Yep! WE DID IT!!!!!!

Five days of bike camp did the trick for both boys! Patrick is cruising as though he has been doing this for years :rolleyes: . Andrew is still nervous about that dratted hand brake, but rides as though he will explode with joy :D :D . I am SOOO glad that I dished out the pile of $$$ that I did for the classes (there were scholarships available, but I didn't want some family to go without when I could pinch pennies and afford the program).

I'd send you some photos, but DH left the camera at work. He showed up for the grand finale day (meetings and out-of-town all week), and was he glad that he did! Smiles all around! He grabbed a bike helmet and hopped on a bike to ride around the track next to each boy. What joy in all three of my guys! We are going out this weekend to update Mom and Dad's bikes (and helmets, as we must set a good example) so that we can start riding down the Erie Canal bike paths on weekends.

I can't tell you how much joy was in my heart when I saw them riding today, it was immeasurable. The other moms at camp were just as gushy, several weepy women were escorted from the facility, and the woman I sat with who had a 9-yr. old daughter with Downs syndrome got to see Lea speed past her for the first time with a "big girl" bike (no training wheels) was speechless with joy. I know, sounds sappy, but you other moms know what these events are like, we take joy in every step toward independence, and these were REALLY BIG STEPS today!

Gonna' go stare at the boys,

Kim

[LIZARD]

Cue the happy dancers, the sparklers, and the confetti!!!!

Two new two-wheel bike riders are loose on the road in my neighborhood!!!! Yep! WE DID IT!!!!!!

WOW!! :D I'm so jealous! I checked the site out, and there is no camp anywhere near me. The closest one is about 2 hours away. :( I showed the site to Drew's therapist, though, and we're gonna talk about it at Tuesday's meeting (the day after Drew's :eek: TEENAGER :eek: induction!!).


LIZARD, so happy fer ya :)

[Mother's Heart]

sappy maybe to somebody who just doesn't understand...but to those of us here....you know, the ones with tears rolling down their cheeks while we're just reading this......We KNOW!!! :D :D

I am SO happy for your boys...so happy you jumped on this opportunity....and so happy you shared it with us.

Congratulations to the big kids! Have tons of fun.

Take a ride for me down that famous 15 miles. ;)

[Mother's Heart]

and oh: *sparkle *sparkle *sparkle *sparkle *sparkle *sparkle *sparkle *sparkle
*boogie*boogie*boogie*boogie*butterfly*boogie*boog ie*boogie*boogie