[blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?

[Carrie Gilmer]

Merry Noel,
I think Holly has given some good advice in that the answer lies more in
Ashleah than in a timeline on this one and also in the technique. Most
sighted kids typically get the training wheels off around ages five and six,
and you are right in that if there is not enough speed the bike is harder to
balance. Riding a bike is something that does require vision to do safely
unless the environment is changed or chosen for safety. It just happens that
this is a topic I have had many discussions and experiences with as at the
training center we had for awhile some serious tandem bikers and some who
tried to bike with their remaining vision as long as they could. So the
topic came up quite a bit-I have heard many stories-and they vary a great
deal.
I know totally blind people who loved to ride and did so in some geographic
restrictions for lack of traffic etc., they fell, they crashed sometimes and
they learned the limitations by the amount of skinned knees they could take
but they kept going. For each person this is different. 

Jordan has more vision I believe than Ashleah, yet he was petrified when the
bike got moving, he could not track, his energy was spent on seeing rather
than enjoying the bike. We got him a three wheeled (can't think of the name
of it) like a scooter, he got fairly fast on that and was not scared because
his feet could always touch the ground immediately. The other kids of course
were whipping up and down the block on their bikes. But we got that scooter
thing, and actually several types, and a pedal car that you could drive that
did not tip or have crash risk so much either. What happened was that
(before they were old enough to go off biking long distance) all the kids
dumped their bikes in our yard and wanted to try the variety we had. The
pedal car was the most popular thing in the neighborhood. For a couple
summers when they got big enough Jordan had a friend who would ride his bike
over, then captain the tandem, and they would go off for miles and miles. He
loves to tandem bike. 

I say if she wants to try it help encourage her, if not and she is happy as
is, let her enjoy it. Kids vary in how much they will live with scraped
knees too. I think my Jordan only scraped his knees like twice in his whole
life. It was not because I kept him from things, he kept himself, he did not
like pain or the spilling of his own blood. I had other children who could
scrape to the bone, cry, and say, let me at it again. That part of it is
personality, not vision, and it makes no comment on the character or future
success to say how many knee scrapes you had or how many you avoided--who is
to say which is "smarter"? smile.

 
 
Carrie Gilmer, President
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
A Division of the National Federation of the Blind
NFB National Center: 410-659-9314
Home Phone: 763-784-8590
carrie.gilmer at gmail.com
www.nfb.org/nopbc
-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of holly miller
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:37 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?

Hank is 8 and isn't interested in riding a bike so I haven't experienced it
first hand.
I did want to wave to you though because Hank is also adopted from China.
He joined our family a month before his 6th birthday, from Suzhou.

My gut feeling is, go by if she want the training wheels off or not.
If having them on doesn't bother her, if they allow her to bike safely &
confidently who cares how old she is?  Besides grandma of course (smile)

If she is feeling self conscious about them herself,  a friend swears by
taking the pedals off at the same time you take the training wheels off.
Lower the seat so her feet will just sit flat on the ground.  Let her scoot
around with foot power, picking up her feet to glide and learn balance.
If she starts to wobble, it's easy to set a foot down to stabilize.  The
theory is kids feel more secure when they are concentrating on balance and
not thinking about pedaling.  Less epic wipe outs with this method too. Once
they are confidently gliding around, reinstall the pedals

Holly
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