Teach your child to ride

6 comments
By Jerry White | Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007 12.00am

There are times in most people’s lives where they stop and realise that the knowledge and skills they use at work could usefully be applied to a home situation. As a psychologist, this happens quite often and usually the realisation comes later than it perhaps should!

Recently such a realisation came to me in teaching my daughters, Millie (aged 5) and Martha (aged 3) to ride their bikes. I have spent a considerable amount of my professional life working with people to acquire new skills and studying the factors that influence them performing these skills effectively. Yet here I was, one autumnal Sunday morning running up and down, shouting random instructions and probably not being the model of a modern father. The realisation dawned that much of the practice I put in place professionally was nowhere to be seen in

Praise your child: Giving your young cyclist feedback is a key to success

my forlorn attempts at encouraging my daughters cycling ambitions. So having now got Millie riding really well on two wheels and Martha confidently following on 4 (not sure if stabilisers actually count as two full wheels but you know what I mean), what pearls of professional and personal wisdom do I have to pass on:

1. Remember that there is an optimum time to learn skills: Studies have shown consistently that when acquiring movement skills such as cycling, there are optimum ages for learning. BUT just because little Jimmy down the road was riding without his stabilisers at 3 years 10 months, does not mean everyone should.  Give your child the broadest range of experiences consistently over time and sooner or later they will hit their “optimal” period and will soon be flying. Comparison with others is the surefire path to increased parental and child anxiety!

2. Do one thing at a time: Obvious I know but you’d be amazed at how often I found myself shouting a stream of instructions (“keep straight”, “keep pedalling”, “look up”, “brake!”) at a confused and completely overloaded 5- year-old!  Focus on one thing at a time and if something goes wrong, don’t pick at all the contributing faults but focus on one key part and talk your youngster through that.

3. Praise: Giving your young cyclist feedback is the key to success and will ensure they want to get back on that bike again and again.  No one is perfect especially when learning a new skill but after each attempt remember to tell them what went well first, then one correction to make before pushing them off with another piece of praise ringing in their ears. Feedback can be simplified into a “sandwich” approach, with two pieces of praise the bread around one single piece of constructive criticism.

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  • I merely lowered the seat on my second daughter's bike so that she could easiy drag her feet while getting used to balancing the bike. We started on a gentle hill and she was riding unassisted within three minutes.

  • I merely lowered the seat on my second daughter's bike so that she could easiy drag her feet while getting used to balancing the bike. We started on a gentle hill and she was riding unassisted within three minutes.

  • Not much practical advice - why not mention learning on grass and slightly downhill. Also try taking the pedals off and let the child scoot along to start with.

  • best way to teach a child to ride a bike is (and Ive taught 3 kids)

    lower the seat

    remove the pedals let them scoot around on a bike without pedals, this will not take long honest. When they have mastered balancing

    put the pedals back on and they will be able to ride.

    increase seat height

    I cannot claim credit for this as it was in one of the very early editions of cycling plus.

    I have mates who were non believers and they have managed to teach their kids too with this method

  • Don't ever use stabilisers, they are really awful. I never used them until I tried a friend's bike, when I could already ride, and I couldn't believe how much they obstructed your ability to control the bike or learn anything at all.

    I learned by being taught by a friend when I was 5. We both knew how to use a two-wheel scooter and so we leveraged this knowledge. First scoot the bike on the left pedal with your left foot. When you get bored with that you lift your right leg progressively higher and higher. When you can easily get it higher than the back wheel you can then start to get it to approach the right pedal. Eventually you actually have both feet on the pedals. You can balance and steer no problem. You have a really obvious "chicken out path". Then just start pedalling.

    Took about half an hour. I have subsequently used this method on other children, and it works.

  • I got my 2 year old son a glide bike, a simple two wheeler without peddles, at the same time our neighbor got their son, who is 3 months older, a "regular bike" with training wheels. This interesting side by side comparison of rate in which the two learned and it was quite amazing. within a few weeks my son was gliding for quite a great distance and at a fair rate of speed, faster than his buddy was able to keep up by just peddling, and within a few months we replaced the glider with a "regular bike" with peddles but without training wheels and he was riding on his own, while it took the other boy over 6 months longer to obtain the same level riding skill, and it really wasn't until we lent the glider bike to him for a week or so did he really grasp the balancing skills required. These boys are very equal both physically and mentally so I have to assume that it was the fact that the glider first focused on balance before peddling that made the difference.

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