8 year old can't ride a bike

[Hagnumber4]

The kids around here are always out on their bikes which is lovely. Eldest son is still on stabilisers but now needs a new bike. Guy in the shop says that he needs 24" which you can't add stabilisers to.

Son doesn't want to ride without stabilisers but desperately needs a bigger bike.

He is AuDHD and goes to a specialist school so is a challenging character and is hyper mobile with quite significant balance issues.

Any thoughts?

Wow what a helpful post! Thank you SO much!

He did have some time with the physio but she was NHS and unable to manage his behaviour and task avoidance (you know that not wanting to do hard things? She was trying to get him to walk stairs age 4 and he just couldn't do it so his behaviour was awful). So we got discharged

There's a definite strength issue there as well as balance and coordination. Nothing has been diagnosed apart from hyper mobility but id probably say something like dyspraxia (although the OT said not).

I like the idea of going down taking the pedals off - I notice he very much leans to the left when he is on stabilisers so I think it's taught him bad habits.

@Hagnumber4 if you are happy to let me know roughly whereabouts in the country you are (PM if you don't want to post in public) I might know of clubs in your area who could help. Plus I'm in a couple of online coaches groups so I could ask for recommendations on there.
I'm certainly not an expert but I have taught quite a few ND kids and recently we had a little girl with hypermobility who took a very long time to get pedalling but is now almost caught up with her age group so I'd say it's worth pursuing. Sometimes it is an easier job for someone who doesn't have the same kind of emotional investment as parents. (Not that I don't care about the kids I coach, but it's very different to trying to teach your own children.)

I would look at getting a cycling instructor to help him develop the confidence. My daughter has cerebral palsy and learnt to ride with an instructor after years of failure and tears with us trying to help her. They break everything down into miniscule parts - more than we would think to do - and are willing to run up and down holding a seat for far longer than any parent could muster. Ultimately, you all want him to be able to ride a normal two wheeler, so mucking about with specialised stabilisers or very expensive Pashley trikes is not really the solution.

I live in NL. Quite a, lot of elderly people ride with stabilisers so adult size definitely exist! Would a trike be a better option though?