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SN children

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Original poster

Anybody managed to teach a dyspraxic child to ride a bike?

49 replies

Niecie · 08/05/2011 17:42

DS1 is 10 and can't ride a bike. We have tried but not recently and I suspect he has grown out of his last bike anyway.

Recently the school has send home letters about cycling proficiency te4st which DS keeps saying he wants to do. He can't of course because he can't ride a bike but he says he wants to try to learn again.

I don't know how to go about it really. The dyspraxia seems to make even peddling hard work. He can't seem to peddle fast enough to avoid falling off it it were not for the stablisers. What with that and not being able to steer and peddle and brake at the same time and he is a bit of a challenge to teach to say the least.

Anybody ever taught a child with dyspraxia (and mild AS) or learnt themselves later in life? Any tips?

What with that and another letter the same day about Yr 6 having photos taken with their friendship groups before they leave the juniors, his differences with other children have been put into stark relief. Normally we just get on with things but these letters just show how different he is. He doesn't have friends to have a photo with and he can't ride a bike. Makes me a bit sad for him which I haven't been for ages.

OP posts:

amberlight · 09/05/2011 11:03

I'm dyspraxic and on the autism spectrum, and so is teenage son. He can ride a bike. So can I. Neither of us well. Does it scare the living daylights out of me when he's out on the bike in traffic? Yup, absolutely. I certainly don't have the skills or balance to ride one on the roads these days either.

It's possible to learn, but cycling in traffic requires such co-ordination and balance that sometimes the bigger question is 'is this a wise idea'. There's no one answer to that question, of course.

janetsplanet · 09/05/2011 11:16

i agree with not doing a one stabiliser thing. it didnt work with either of my girls. just made it more wobbly and unsafe

Original poster

Niecie · 09/05/2011 11:38

Thanks again everybody. I tend to agree about the stablizers from past experience. DS tends not to be able to pedal hard enough to have enough momentum to move forward and be upright, iyswim. The stabilizers tend to slow him down even more although since his current bike has them I was going to give them a try first just to see how things are now since it is at least a year since he last had a go on a bike.

Amberlight - can I ask, are you able to drive? I am scared of DS's lack of awareness of what is going on around him but I hope it is something that will improve as he gets older. I sort of think that riding a bike will help because it is a change in speed at which he needs to process information. Does that make sense? I would be very very resistent to him practicing on the road though. The thought of him crossing the road by himself scares me rigid let alone cycling on a road.

DS loves cars, reads about them all the time, dreams of what he will drive when he is old enough. It is one of my biggest worries that he just won't be able to do it. That would be really sad.

OP posts:

auntevil · 09/05/2011 13:37

DS1 (dyspraxic) has finally come off stabilisers at 8. He had been learning from about 3 ish. DS2 (6) took a month or so and is ready to come off stabilisers. DS3 (3) a demon scooterist - faster than DS1 on the bike!
Practise, practise and practise. See progress in small steps. I remember when he managed to do a circular pedal movement rather than just a downward movement. Next step was more than 1 pedal rotation at a time. Balance, breaking and steering is a bit slapdash, but so far he seems to bounce back up.
Concentration is a big part. We did small chunks of practise. Driving to the park and using the cycle paths. It helped that there was a playpark nearby, so we could do 10 minute sessions, with some distraction in between.
Will i let him on the roads - no. Driving when he's older - watch this space Is there an unlikely emoticon?

EllenJaneisnotmyname · 09/05/2011 13:42

My friend's DH is a driving instructor, and their DS has ASD, so I'm sort of marking my place. Can't imagine DS ever driving ATM, but who knows?

amberlight · 09/05/2011 13:50

Driving, oddly, is something I'm very comfortable with. Took me a few years to learn, but I've driven some 300,000 miles since and really love it.

EllenJaneisnotmyname · 09/05/2011 13:52

You are always giving us hope, Amberlight. Thank you.

amberlight · 09/05/2011 14:19

Most of the aspies I know drive, and drive very well. A few don't. Well worth googling Julia Malkin MBE who is a very expert driving instructor on the autism spectrum and very well known. Been on the tele etc. She has many good things to say about how to teach us to drive.

Original poster

Niecie · 09/05/2011 22:35

Totally agree with EllenJane - Amberlight you are indeed a beacon of hope!

I don't think, in DS1's case, it will be the AS that will make driving difficult but the dyspraxia which imo has always been more of an issue for DS than the AS. I just don't see he will have the coordination or the general awareness but then we do have another 7 yrs before we have to cross that bridge. It wouldn't be so bad but if you ask him what he would like to do when he grows up he just says he wants to do something with cars. He would probably be an ace motoring journalist although I fear he wants to be the next Jeremy Clarkson

OP posts:

amberlight · 10/05/2011 07:37

Took me 5 years in total to pass my test (kept losing confidence and giving up lessons for a year or so, then doing a few more), so I was in my early 20s before having a full license. It helped that I had a car-mad Dad who taught me car mechanics, so I knew exactly how it all operated. And it helped that I'm obsessed with lists of things and rules, and the Highway Code is a List of rules. Joy of joys!

Original poster

Niecie · 10/05/2011 09:58

Did you find it stressful when other people didn't follow the Highway Code rules though or were your list of rules just useful for passing the exam.

Early 20's isn't late for passing your test so I find that quite comforting too but whether DS will be able to cope I don't know. It is hard to imagine him as a grown up when he is only 10. At the moment he is still my baby.

OP posts:

amberlight · 10/05/2011 10:39

Niecie, I find it stressful when anyone doesn't follow rules but it's amazing how logical traffic really is. It helped me a lot to know which cars were fast and which were slow, because then I could also guess whether the little darlings driving them were going to be driving erratically or not. e.g. "if bright red small old car with loud music coming out of the windows, expect mad driving" "if very old slow car with person wearing a cloth cap driving it, expect them to do 15 in a 40 zone and wander off randomly down a side road without indicating". With enough practice, those sorts of rules work really well. Since I can't handle public transport without sensory overload, a car is SO important for my freedom.

Original poster

Niecie · 10/05/2011 13:12

Talking of public transport - walking in public places I can imagine is horribly stressful. I get wound up by people not sticking to the left on stair cases for example. Why can't predestrians follow the rules of the road!!? I say this as one who is not anything like ASD (I don't think). Add that to people who stop dead in their tracks without warning, people who cut across you or slow down and speed up randomly and I can see how it would be too much. I find my car a little haven of calm compared to all that!

OP posts:

amberlight · 10/05/2011 13:26

It is indeed horribly stressful. For years I'd bump into people because I couldn't figure out how to calculate which way they were walking . I then realised there's a rule for that - you look towards the side you want to pass on, not at them.

lurkerspeaks · 10/05/2011 21:29

My brother has/had dyspraxia.

He learnt to ride a bike by trial and error with an early variant of a balance bike (a small bike with the pedals taken off). He demanded that the pedals be put back on one day and cycled off.

He now cycle commutes to work so there is hope!

Original poster

Niecie · 11/05/2011 14:06

Thanks lurkerspeaks - it is good to know it is doable. I think he will get it in the end but it will just take longer than other children. Thats OK though. We can handle that.

Love your name by the way

OP posts:

leiela · 11/05/2011 19:29

My son has Autism and Dyspraxia we where told riding a bike would be difficult if not impossible.

However we managed it, as someone said the problem seemed to be with getting the pedal's to go around fast enough.

We also found getting a bike too small for him helped, we took him to an abandoned carpark about once a week where he could ride withour worrying about car's or curb's, people getting in the way etc.

The biggest problem we had was keeping up his motivation, my son has a younger brother who could ride about 2 years before him and he found it embarrasing and disheartening.

keep at it i bet he will get it eventually, he might never be good (my son isn't good enough to be on the roads) but it's good exercise and a fun activity.

FBJ · 17/05/2011 06:53

I have a child with dyspraxia and no bike riding and PE was an issue until she dropped the subject in year 9.

Check out the Dyspraxia foundation

Hope this helps.

Any further info comtact me [email protected]

moid · 17/05/2011 14:23

At Easter we took the boys to Centreparcs (7 & 9) neither could ride a bike. DS1 very negative and though he had a bike always refused to learn.

We got two of those bike attachements to ours so they spent two days learning to balance on those. DS2 embarrased that he couldn't ride so we hired a bike for him - he learnt in a day. Not surprising because he is the sporty one.

DS1 (dxyspraxic and probably ASD) watched his brother and then decided to have a go. We were very nervous - but amazingly he got it as quick if not slightly quicker than his little brother.

They both now have bikes and we off camping in the New Forest at half term with their bikes.

No child can resist learning to ride a bike at Centreparcs

NGUM · 13/09/2011 14:22

My dyspraxic teenager is 16 and my worst fears happened . She took the dog for a walk (alone) and came into contact with a car as she tried to cross the road. I was on my way home from work and found her shocked and shaken in her bed room. she was fine and not injured at all. But how do I teach her to cross the road safely? I have tried different approaches and want to work towards her being able to cross he road safely. I have doubts wether this is possible ?? Can any one help?

LittleBigIreland · 23/04/2015 14:06

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amumtothree · 23/04/2015 21:37

Not much more to add really. Our dyspraxic son learnt age 9. It took a large carpark, lots of patience and most of the summer. DH started by taking his pedals off then holding on to the bike to keep it stable, as he really struggled to turn the wheels. One thing that we were offered but didn't need in the end was a support. Our son was under the OT and they had a strap that went round the torso with a handle to help you support them whilst they cycled.

amumtothree · 23/04/2015 21:38

Apologies just realised this was a resurrected thread, may help someone though

HappyAxolotyl · 23/04/2015 23:20

My dd learned when she was 11, but not in enough time to get her cycling proficiency, and she has never really mastered it well enough to cycle on roads.
What was really helpful to her was learning to horse ride. It really improved her core stability and did wonders for her self esteem. She was also lucky enough to get the chance to do some vaulting.
She couldn't ride a bike but could kneel on a moving horse. It never ceased to amaze me.

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