Activities For Down Syndrome Children – Teaching Your Child With Down Syndrome to Ride a 2-Wheeled Bike
January 23rd, 2010 | Published in Women's Health
“Balance Bikes” are made for younger kids when learning how to ride 2-wheeled bikes without training wheels. These work great for both typical kids as well as children with special needs. Many parents see that using scale bikes instead of training wheels is a more effective way to teach kids how to ride a bike. In addition to the sheer joy brought nearly in children by learning to ride a 2-wheeler, you will furthermore save a tremendous amount of bucks by not having to come up with the remarkably pricey and cumbersome 3-wheeled bikes made traditionally for special needs children. The Skuut bike is just this sort of bike and fits children of all abilities between the ages of about 2 and 5. The only issue of course is that they do not make bikes like these for older and bigger kids, at least that I have found. At any rate we have had great success in our practice by making our own balance bikes for older children. How you might go about it: Start with a bike that you don’t care much about and remove the pedals. Next lower the seat down so your child can easily touch the ground and teach them how to walk along at a slow pace while holding the bike upright. I have found that in both young and older children, there is some degree of fear the first time or two, so be as patient and understanding as possible. Also in most cases the children do not enjoy hitting their ankle bones into the “crank” part of the bike and those are easily removed as well from the center area. If this job is too much for your mechanical skill level, the folks at any bike shop will do it for you in just minutes and usually for free when you tell them what you are trying to do. It is quite likely that your child has never experienced this degree of freedom associated with a bicycle before, especially if they are used to training wheels or heavier 3-wheeled bikes. I also recommend that you give them a starting point and an ending point to begin with. For example you might tell them, “We’re just going to ride your bike down the driveway to mailbox and then back and we’ll be finished.” By employing this strategy I have found success in keeping the stress to a minimum and many times they will ask to go farther or do it again. Don’t let your love ones suffer anymore! Lead them out through program now!
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