People ask me all the time how I taught my non-verbal Autistic child how to ride a regular bike without training wheels. The reality is that it wasn't easy and No, sorry but I probably can't teach yours.
I originally started him on a Tricycle when he was around 5 or 6. I had to hunch over and hold his feet to the pedals ... it was BACK BREAKING! After about A YEAR of doing this, he finally got it so next I had to keep his hands on the handlebars. The technique I would use is to follow behind him basically hunched over him with my hands on either side of him moving the handlebars left and right to keep him going straight. That only took about 6 months or so for him to start riding straight ahead. About a year later I bought him a larger tricicle since he outgrew the smaller one he learned on. When he was 8 I bought him a regular bicycle with training wheels and that's when I started trying to teach him how to ride a regular bike. My technique was to hold the bike as he rode it, but the moment I would let go he would jump off. We would usually train for about 15-20 min. then I would reward him with a Tricycle ride, at first with me running alongside him then with me riding alongside him with my bike, but mostly I had to "pull" him. After a year I took off one of the training wheels and 6 months later I took off the other one. Over the years I had to upgrade both the Tricicle and the bike, but by the time he was 17, I was just training him on my bike since he was about my height. Finally shortly after he turned 18 we had success! I had taken him out like usual and was holding the bike running alongside of him as he peddled and this time when I let him go, he didn't stop, he didn't jump off, he just kept going!! Please support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/CostOfAutism
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