Teaching AS child to ride a bike

[Flamesparrow]

I know I have read on here before that AS children are often later to be able to ride without stabilisers.

Is there any good method to help "teach" them or is it just something that will click one day.

I have no patience, I readily admit that and after our one attempt I will be leaving the lessons up to someone else.

It just seems to be a case of there is too much to process - to be able to think about keeping pedalling, going forward, staying upright etc, it is all just a mass of instructions and she can only focus on one at a time (so even with my hand holding the bike it was too much to concentrate on keeping pedalling and not having stabilisers iyswim).

I don't really know how to help. She doesn't get embarrassed, so atm that is no issue, she doesn't care if she is the only one of her friends with stabilisers because it doesn't occur to her that that could be something different (does that make sense? it doesn't bother her that DS is dry at night and she isn't either) - it is lovely that she is like that. But she does get frustrated that she is slow, and I know she would be faster without the stabilisers.

We are still working on this with DS - he is nearly 6. He cannot focus on balancing ,pedalling and steering all at once. We are teaching him to balance on a balance bike - however he struggles to balance and propel, but if we take him to a slope at our local park he can balance himself as the bike rolls down, and his confidence is increasing. However he still rides his bike with pedals with stabilisers on - it took a long time for him to pedal and steer, but he finally got it. The aim is once he can 'feel' to balance on the balance bike, then we can progress to taking the stabilisers of his other bike, first on a slope, and then finally on the flat where he will need to pedal as well.

You could take the pedals off DDs bike - we didn't suceed here because DS was upset that his bike had no pedals - we had to give him another bike (actually his little brothers balance bike).

Hope that makes sense.

Ah, thread on bikes - Some people with an ASD learn really fast, and others learn at a moderate pace and eventually get reasonable at it, and others like me are a Total Liability and Need To Be Kept Off The Things. I learned, but I wobble, especially if I take my hands off the bars (which isn't good for signalling).

The saddle hurts me like hell unless it's a specialist one. The handles are rough so I have to pad them. I can't think about where I'm going if I'm thinking about pedalling and signalling, as it uses up all the brain cells. But an ASD colleague is a brilliant cyclist who trains others to do their proficiency, so we can't all be like this.

I have a yearning for a tricycle, because I don't fall off those. I don't care about what the public thinks, though ds says he'll disown me

hi, mine (not yet diagnosed, but very close to......) learned when she was 10. She was fed up of seeing younger kids riding without stabilisers, and kept getting very upset. After a few months of constant trying, and getting more and more upset, we left it for a few months, and then when she got back on, she seemed a little more confident.

Still cant do kerbs, uneven ground etc. and point blank refused to do cycle week in y6, as she knew she would have to ride one handed (to signal!)

Next step is roller blading..... OMG i can see many trips to a&e coming up! She can barely walk in a straight line without tripping!

DS2 learnd when he was 7, we took him to a long gentle smooth slope and he practiced freewheeling first, then pedalling gently downhill, the last thing to click was pedalling on the flat and uphill, he tended to wobble when starting off. I deff reccomend learning to balance without stabilsers before learning to pedal.

Rollerblading? I never managed to rollerskate. Well, I could, but mostly in the sort of way that ended with me upside down in a shrub border somewhere. Incidentally, upside down in a lavender bush is also where I ended up after my one attempt to learn to ride a motorbike. Dad decided that my biker days were over.

Busybeingmum

Can i ask what a Lidl is? DD 6 (AS) still cant ride a bike (even with stabilisers)she like your DS just cant steer, pedal and look wear she is going all at the same time.

3cutedarlings. Busybeingmum is referring to a balance bike, which is sometimes called a like-a-bike. It is a bike without pedals that the child propels with their feet, and will eventually learn to freewheel by lifting their feet and balancing. My DS is fantastic at this already at 3. I definitely recommend them.

amber - (great to see you here btw)thats exactly my feeling when she mentions the roller blading, in fact it is more !!! I think it comes from watching too much Dancing on Ice, as she figures if she can roller blade, then ice skating cant be that much different.

She is now 12, and i can count on one hand the amount of times she has been on the rollers, and every single time, i have had to hold her upright - dont think she'll be dancing on ice just yet!

....Geeky Urchin is nearly 12, and cannot even begin to cycle. He couldn't even really do it with stabilisers!

...he cannot use a swing independently, either, though he would love to. He waggles torso and legs with enthusiasm, yet the swing will barely twitch.

Scooting, however, and scaling climbing frames, he can accomplish with aplomb....

Just how he is made, I guess....

Swings - good grief I'd never even thought about it. Took me years and years to learn to swing! Fell off it a lot too. Looking back on the things I tried as a child, I'm amazed I'm still alive, really. Won't mention the horse riding cross country jumping in which I spent much of each session upside down in a ditch.

Thanks Busybeingmum and widemouth, i though it was a balance bike . My friend DD has one i shall have to try DD on hers the next time we visit. Although tbh i think it may well still be to much for her to think about in one go IYSWIM. She also has DCD (most likely dyspraxia) so maybe this is why she finds it so difficult.