Training Wheels
About a year before this entry, Mikey went to a bike camp to help him learn to ride a bike without training wheels. I have linked that post below.
Although Mikey didn’t learn to ride a two-wheeler that week, we kept practicing. This journal entry shows Mikey in a local un-used parking lot. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the stabilizing bar still attached to the back of his bike.
We practiced a lot! I never give up on Mikey, but sometimes we do move on from a skill. In this case, it wasn’t as fun for Mikey to ride with me holding onto the back of the bike. It was infinitely more exciting to leave the training wheels on and let him whiz around on his own. For a kid who needs support for so much of his day, the freedom of a bike was the real draw.
Due to the geography of our area, we never moved on to get him an adaptive adult size bike, but maybe he can do that in the future. It will depend on how safe it is to ride through his adult community. The sky’s the limit, Mikey!
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About the Author
Erica Mauro is a mom to two teenage boys, Will who is neurotypical and Michael with Autism and cognitive delays. She holds a BA in Psychology from Colgate University and a Masters of Psychology in Education from Columbia Teacher’s College. Before staying home with her children, she worked as an elementary school teacher. For five years, she served on the Board of Directors of the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation, a charity dedicated to enriching the lives of children with special needs. In partnership with her husband Dave, she aspires to parent by using daily life as an opportunity for therapeutic intervention, seizing on real experiences as opportunities to build skills and strategies for Michael in a joyful, loving home environment. On the tougher early days, she just tried to get everyone safely to bedtime and start fresh in the morning. *wink* 
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