[blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?

Sun Mar 29 17:02:09 UTC 2009

Thanks Carrie and Holly.  
The training wheels are not bothering Ashleah at all.  She is so tiny for her age that other people don't say anything either about it.  Right now she enjoys riding the bike and I'm worried that if I do remove them and she does have a few bad falls she will just be turned off completely about bike riding and therefore this joy of hers will be lost.  

Marty, by the way, had a large three wheeler like Jordan, because of his CP.  Perhaps that will be the next bike "WE" buy for her so there is no issue of training wheels.  (HUGE SMILE)  I think she will out grow this one soon, anyway.

Thanks!  I'm going to forward this message to her grandmother.

Holly, email me off line so we can chat about China.  owinm at yahoo.com

Merry-Noel

________________________________
From: Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 10:41:08 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?

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 _______________________________________________ blindkid mailing list blindkid at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/carrie.gilmer%40gm ail.com _______________________________________________ blindkid mailing list blindkid at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
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