Special Olympics Strider Bike Program

Because of Colin's involvement in the Special Olympics of NJ Young Athlete Program, he had the opportunity to participate in a pilot program for Strider Bikes.  Prior to the start of this program, I had never heard of a Strider bike before so I was unfamiliar with the idea behind.  However, the goal is to teach children how to ride a two-wheeler by first learning how to balance and steer before learning how to pedal. 

 

We were very excited to take advantage of this opportunity because Colin does enjoy trying to ride his tricycle and he is very motivated by gross motor activities.  His stamina is not as long as most kids' are, but, he is always willing to try and last as long as he can. 

 

The program started this past Saturday at the Special Olympics facility and because the kids' had their birthday party that day, I was unable to go with Chris and Colin (Kailey and I were getting ready...that post will soon follow!).  

When we explained to Colin where he was going and what he would be doing, he was really excited to get his helmet and bring it with him. 

The program started with some basic warm up activities.  While Colin is not always interested, it is important for us to have Colin participate and follow directions.  We do this because we hope that it follows through in all aspects, especially school. 

After warm up, the goal was for the kids to get used to simply holding a handlebar and then work on steering the handle bar in the different directions that they are going. 

They played some basic "follow the leader" activities so that they could learn to steer as they were moving in different directions. 

Because the Strider bike uses your feet to navigate, the bike had to be adjusted to Colin's height so that he could use it appropriately. 

I was so happy to hear from Chris that Colin did really well following directions and getting introduced to the bike. 

In the video at the end of this post, you will see some of the specific things they did with Colin to get him to use the bike through a certain "course" but it was really neat that he was able to use the bike and follow directions to go in certain directions. 

The goal of the first week was just to get the kids introduced and to practice some basic things.  We are really looking forward to seeing where the next 4 weeks will take us and what Colin may be able to accomplish at the end.  Maybe we will skip a trike and go right to a big boy bike!