Freedom of Movement: The Importance of Riding a Bike
June 22, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
A study underway at the University of Michigan seeks to get 60% of kids with disabilities (Down syndrome, autism) riding a bike in five days. Afterwards, the children are tracked for a year to chart the effects on their emotions and intelligence. Kinesiology division professor Dale Ulrich is overseeing the study; he started to work with a program called Lose the Training Wheels under retired engineer and professor Richard Klein several years ago.
The June 20th Detroit Free Press quotes Laura Bailey of the University of Michigan News Service as saying that “just 10% of kids with Down Syndrome can ride a bike, and autistic children have similar issues.” Just 10%—-I don’t know the source for this figure, and I don’t know the percentage of autistic children who can ride bikes. But more than a few parents have noted their efforts and struggles to teach their children to ride bikes.
Bike riding is one activity in which Charlie not only excels. He’s exponentially better at it than I was when I was his age, and than I’ll ever be (it’s the same with swimming). This is Jim’s doing, not mine. Soon as Charlie could pedal his tricycle, Jim was taking him on dad-and-son jaunts to the playground, and before I knew it Jim was off buying himself a bike to lead Charlie (still with his training wheels) on rides on trails and in parks. Jim took off the training wheels when Charlie was 7 and before I knew it, they’d given up on the trails and headed for……..the streets. They’ve had some hair-raising adventures, destroyed a few bushes, and Jim’s occasionally had to engage in what he calls “bike rodeo” in the process of teaching Charlie to use the hand brakes at an intersection.
Charlie clearly loves getting on his bike and self-motoring himself to different place.: It’s very unlikely that Charlie will be able to drive a car, so the bike will perhaps be his means of self-transporting, one day, and I can just see Charlie grinning ear to ear as he rides off down the street on his red mountain bike.
I’ve asked Jim to write something up before the summer’s over about how he taught Charlie to ride a bike, but it may take a bit—Jim is finishing up several projects and recently (long story; big sigh) injured his back pretty seriously. (He is in a lot of pain; I am worried; I don’t want to say more than that now.) Bike-riding is one of the few activities that helps to lessen the pain and Jim wouldn’t miss out on dad-and-Charlie-time for anything. Somehow, being in motion always seems to help.
at the age of 5, J is just now interested in learning how to ride a large tricycle or a small bike with training wheels. His threshold for frustration is pretty low though so it has to be a great day to even get him to try it out. Maybe we can aim for 2 wheels by age 10?
Tristan seems to like it when I rotate his legs in the manner of riding a bike but shows no interest when placed on one. I think once I got him to peddle a tricycle for one single rotation before he lost interest.
Being in MI, I’ll have to take a look into this program; since he seems to like the movement, I imagine actually riding one would be good for him…
I always loved riding bikes and wanted my boys to ride. But I didn’t Andy would be able to ever get rid of his training wheels as he would pedal and look around at the scenery not paying attention to where he is going.
But I kept encouraging him and he kept riding. He finally wore out his training wheels and the night I took them off, he needed one push to go. He loves riding his bike and I see that he “needs” to ride every day.
It’s summer now and too hot to ride during the day and it often rains in the evening when it is cooler. So we swim when we can. But I know Andy is itching to ride again.
And I see where his peripheral vision comes into play. He may not seem to be paying attention but manages to just miss every obstacle.
He is ready for a new bike and I think we go the route of a BMX which has no gears to foul up and it sturdy for his rough riding.
My younger son only occasionally rides. I think he prefers his razor. But he didn’t learn how to really ride the razor until he learned to ride his bike without the training wheels. He will go out early to (wait for the bus) and ride his razor.
I look forward to learning from Jim. Maybe he can dictate to you the steps for riding a bike. We had a bike years ago and they practiced in the house. It is hard as a single parent to take one kid outside and leave other in and the dogs across the street bark at all kids who bike, roller skate and skateboard by, so that freaks out my kids. Recently two people said they had extra bikes for us and then I can help Nick so that at least he knows how to and can respond accordingly to a question asking him if he knows how to. Next is also the swimming. I just found yesterday a site that sells large and XL swim diapers so that Matt could try at some point as well. The chlorine is not good for my skin though.
Sharon mentioned about peripheral vision—-Charlie tends to miss obstacles (like the rear mirrors of parked cars) by a hair’s breath. He’s learned left and right and the notion of “stopping” thanks to bike riding.
Charlie initially just would not move his feet and legs to make the pedals go and we did a lot of pushing. (Though we never had one of those trikes with a handle on the back.) What got him to start pedaling was we set Charlie on his trike at one end of a walkway that had a very gradual slope. An ABA therapist figured out a way to get Charlie to move forward unconsciously: She stood a few feet in front of him and waved something he really liked (a colored square of paper—-he had learned his colors using those squares and he really liked them) and Charlie was so eager to get it that he started to push on the pedals and go forward. She stood further and further back and then onto the sidewalk and he got it.
Dogs—-Charlie’s pedaled off like a rocket on hearing them sometimes. Like I said, a few bushes have gotten knocked over…….
We have that program here in Wichita – I was all set to sign Kelly up for it this year (he will be 11 next month) but he and Dad went to NYC that week…
I tried 2 summers ago to teach him, but I just can’t run along beside him as well as I did 7 years ago with my daughter…. last summer was lost to my broken wrist… and it’s already in the 90’s here, so I don’t know when we’ll try again…
It would be wonderful if Jim did write something – I hope he feels better soon! Back pain is just…ugh.
Gus has shown more interest in riding his bike this year, which has me excited. Braking is hard, but he seems to be getting the doncept of foot braking. He tires easily, but he does seem to enjoy the mobility. I love to ride, so if the day comes that we can all go out together, I’ll be quite happy.
I found a handle in Target that attaches to the back wheel of the bike, so the process involves no hunching over holding the seat while trying to run. The minute I saw that on the shelf, I was on the phone to the mom of one of the boys I work with to ask her if I should buy it right then, or if she wanted to get it. We’d talked about teaching him to ride his bike without the training wheels for a while, and this made it much easier. 5-10 minutes a day, two weeks later, we’re no longer running behind him, we’re riding behind him.
I’d love the details on the hand brake, but I’m a little unsure about my abilities to ride up beside him.
Jim rides beside Charlie. He taught Charlie to use the hand brakes in a parking lot — Jim would say “squeeze brakes” and prompt Charlie to do so with the hand brakes. He had tried to teach Charlie to use the foot brakes too, but that was too confusing—-Charlie had learned you pedal forward and it was too confusing to pedal backwards.
Thanks for the good wishes for Jim. He can barely (I mean that literally) walk — he’s used to being really active with Charlie so this has been a tough one.
Hunter will be 8 in August, which is the minimum age requirement for “Lose the Training Wheels.” He is enrolled in the “camp” from Aug 11-15th. A local (San Antonio) organization called “Kinetic Kids” is sponsoring the program here and they are optimistic. They traveled somewhere to watch the program in another city before investing the $12k is costs to bring it to your city. I will certainly report back after the “camp,” as I, too, have realized that riding a bicycle is a social and practical imperative for my boy…even if he doesn’t realize it
.
I originally tried to teach Gus to use the hand brakes, and metally it was easier for him, but he’s got low tone in his hands and just couldn’t squezze hard enough to stop himself all the time. I gave up when he went barrelling down a hill toward a main road. Luckily, my husband is a fast sprinter.
It was odd how he learned to back pedal. He was playing with a neighbor’s stationary bike and kind of discovered it by accident, so we just ran with that.
Our research on training youth with ASD and Down syndrome at the U of Michigan was a great success the past 2 weeks with 67% learning to ride a 2 wheel bike in the Ann Arbor site and 63% learning in the Marne/Grand Rapids site. The data we currently have from both sites suggests that parent’s perceptions of their child’s ability to ride a 2 wheel bike increase dramatically and they also indicated that their child slept better then ever following the 75 minutes of continuous riding exercise each day. We will monitor each rider for the next 12 months to see if they increase their level of physical activity, balance, leg strength, and frequency of participation in the community.
This is wonderful—–would love to know more of the results. Have definitely noted that a good bike ride helps my son’s sleeping. And fundamental to my son learning has been the “you can do it!” attitude provided by his dad.
Thanks again.
There’s some very well written instructions for training kids how to ride a bike here
http://www.aspergersupport.org.uk/bikeride.html
@AS Home Ed: I have to thank you for posting this link! Tonight, my son rode a 2 wheeler for the first time and it was an amazing experience for all of us! I didn’t follow the steps exactly, but they worked just the same! Thanks so much!
We have a GREAT product for kids of all abilities. It is not a regular 2 wheeled bike, but a four wheeled “rowing propelled” toy. It is being used in hundreds of hospitals and clinics nationwide because kids of all abilities can ride it. It helps with low tone, motor planning, muscle strengthening etc. We welcome you to read more and watch the videos of how the Power Pumper works by visiting our website. We can refer you to other specialty bike manufacturers as well, if you do not feel the Power Pumper is a good fit for your child!
Happy to report that all seven kids in the Lose The Training Wheels camp class rode a 2-wheeler with varying levels of proficiency within the 5 days. Hunter is by no means an expert, but he is on his way! I recommend it highly.
That’s fabulous! Wishing you many happy bike rides!
For me, biking is independence. I’ll probably never drive, for various reasons, but the fact that I can ride a bike, coupled with the fact that I live in a bicycle-friendly city that also has decent (not perfect, and not even great!) public transit, means that I’m not stranded.
Of course, it took me until I was eight or so to lose the training wheels, but once I did, I was gone.