New Program Helps Kids with Disabilities Ride Bikes

A new program called Lose the Training Wheels helps kids with disabilities learn how to ride bikes.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on May 13 2008

For children around the world, learning how to ride a bike is a memorable rite of passage they’ll never forget. But for kids with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, autism, and other special needs, problems with motor skills can make it tough for them to make the transition to two wheels.

Fortunately, Lose the Training Wheels, a new Canadian program based in Comox Valley, is here to help. The program designed by Richard Klein is a five-day training session that matches volunteers with children in need of a little extra help to make the transition from training wheels to riding on two wheels, using a series of different training rollers to help the children adapt to the shift in balance of a real bike.

Though bike riding may not seem like an essential skill, “this gives them a whole new sense of freedom and self confidence,” Christine Helpard, whose son Benjamin was in the program, told The Comox Valley Record. “It’s just an amazing thing.”

At the end of the initial five day period, 83 percent of the 22 young participants were finally able to ride a two-wheeled bike without assistance. For founder Klein, a mathematician, those were some pretty great odds. “You can’t change the child, but you can change the bike,” he said.

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