Is Your Child Struggling with Learning to Ride a Bike?
A positive outcome of the stay at home time has been a resurgence in bicycle riding.
Are you trying to teach your child to ride so they can enjoy the thrills of bike riding too?
For a child, a bicycle represents freedom.
The ability to get out and about on their own is a significant step in a child’s self-development. It is often a big element for their social development too.
Being able to ride a bike means the freedom to:
- go out to explore
- rendezvous with friends
- exercise
- be independent.
Riding a bike is often a family activity.
When kids are young they can ride in a trailer, then a trail-behind bike. When your child can’t make the transition to riding on their own it can derail the way the family spends time together.
Does your 5-10 year old struggle with riding a bike?
We often find kids this age want to ride but have almost given up. There is a unique set of coordination skills that go beyond balance and pedaling.
Three distinct directions of movement are happening simultaneously. There is dynamic lateral balance to stay upright while arms and head are rotating to steer and look, and legs are pushing forward and back. Sometimes all three pieces can be hard to synchronize.
We find there are often overlooked reasons for the individual skills to have a hard time integrating. The early life events include birth trauma, early medical procedures, injuries and illness. We can often guide these skills to successfully integrate in just 1-2 sessions.
How-to videos so you can assess basic biking skill coordination.
I recruited my son to show you how to assess four specifics skills which impact your child’s bike riding safety. (See below.) If you find one or more skills that your child needs help with, feel free to set up a virtual or in-office appointment.
What are other ways your family stays active together?
Drop me a line with ideas for a future video series.
Is Learning to Ride a Bike a Challenge?
How-To Assess Dynamic BalanceCara and her son demonstrate how to assess the dynamic core balance needed to ride a bike, including common faults. |
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How-To Assess Steering and Checking for Traffic BalanceThe second video demonstrates how to assess the differentiated core function required to maintain balance while steering the bike and when looking around to check traffic. |
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How-To Assess Pedaling PowerThe third video demonstrates how to assess pedaling ability and power. It’s surprising to see the ways this might not work well. |