[blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?

[Mark Feliz]

Hello Merry:

What are your daughter's expectations of this particular activity? Is she 
content with staying on the sidewalk, moving very slowly so she can follow 
the contrast? Or, would she be excited to let go, feel the breeze on her 
face as she follows someone a head of her with a noisemaker on the spokes?

I congratulate her for getting out and getting some exercise. I bet you can 
find some great bike trails that may not be so busy on a given day for her 
to get out there and ride. When I was growing up I had great object sound 
location. I used this to independently ride around my neighborhood with very 
few mishaps. However, at that time not very many people parked their cars in 
the street. Since many households today have multiple vehicles I find that 
there is more street parking than before.

I will advise not to allow her to put on the speed using a bicycle with 
training wheels. She is more apt to flip at high speeds while utilizing 
training wheels than with out them.

I hope she is encouraged to get on out there!



Mark



Mark Feliz

HAPPY DOTS BRAILLE SERVICES

First Vice-PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND OF ARIZONA
EAST VALLEY CHAPTER

1038 WEST HILLVIEW STREET
MESA, ARIZONA  85201

VOICE: 480-890-8943
FAX: 480-835-3036
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Merry-Noel Chamberlain" <lemonjuze at yahoo.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 2:54 PM
Subject: [blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?


Hi everyone,
My daughter, Ashleah, is ten-years-old and can see out of the corner of her 
eye about as far as her elbow. I'm writing today to find out if I'm just 
being an overly protective mother. (smile) We've only had our daughter a 
year and a half as we've adopted her from China. My mother got her a 
two-wheel bike (as she has done for all her grandchildren) and Ashleah has 
been riding it with training wheels. My mother seems to think that now is 
the time to remove the training wheels. I'm not so sure. Ashleah doesn't 
ride her bike fast enough for the training wheels to leave the ground. We've 
taken her to ride in large empty parking lots but mostly, she likes to ride 
it on the sidewalk trails of the local park. She never goes real fast and 
she can see the contrast of the sidewalk and the grass edge. She does use a 
helmet when she rides. I can't remember at what age we removed the training 
wheels for our older daughter who is sighted
 (It's been at least 20 years when she was as young as her little sister.) 
I'm just curious, what are your thoughts/experiences when it comes to 
training wheels for blind/very low vision children?

Merry-Noel Chamberlain - A TVI and O&M instructor but never have faced this 
before... :-)



_______________________________________________
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/felizfamily5%40msn.com