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nostromo
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02 May 2010, 6:58 am

Here's my James on his balance bike yesterday.

do.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv3vYUkVgCo[/youtube]

I'm quite proud of him getting to this stage when has basically zilch language, basically I have just put him on the thing and let him work out what he has to do.



CockneyRebel
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02 May 2010, 7:25 am

Do they have them for adults? I want a silver one. 8)


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liloleme
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02 May 2010, 11:36 am

Hes doing great...good for large motor skills and balance. I liked that when he fell he just got right back up and did it again. I should get my daughter one of those I have seen them on a lot on different web sites.
Dont know if they have those for adults, Cockney Rebel but I know they have lots of pretty cool things for adults on the site Abilitations http://store.schoolspecialtyonline.net/ ... tion=30601 (go to the sensory solutions part)
Its a really big site because so I suggest requesting the catalog it makes it a bit easier to find things.



CockneyRebel
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02 May 2010, 1:27 pm

liloleme wrote:
Hes doing great...good for large motor skills and balance. I liked that when he fell he just got right back up and did it again. I should get my daughter one of those I have seen them on a lot on different web sites.
Dont know if they have those for adults, Cockney Rebel but I know they have lots of pretty cool things for adults on the site Abilitations http://store.schoolspecialtyonline.net/ ... tion=30601 (go to the sensory solutions part)
Its a really big site because so I suggest requesting the catalog it makes it a bit easier to find things.


I took a look, and they do have a lot of cool stuff. :)


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nostromo
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02 May 2010, 11:55 pm

I'd love for him to come riding with me one day. I think the next step for safety would be learning braking, but it's one step at a time, we have a little bike here for him but I think I would take the pedals and cranks off so its basically just like his little wooden bike but with brakes. Then pedalling later. He's never learnt to pedal a pedal-trike it's a bit too hard or boring or something..



azurecrayon
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03 May 2010, 9:02 am

He rides so well! And thank you for posting this video. I'd never heard of balance bikes before but had to go look around on the internet to find out more. Our 4 yr old asd child has trikes and a bike, but doesnt ride them since he doesnt like to pedal and wants to push with his feet, and pedals get in the way of that.

I mentioned these bikes to my SO, and he said he saw one at walmart the other day and was going to tell me about it. I looked online and they have a little balance bike for $29. We are going tonight to pick one up. Its a cheap model, but it will be a good start to see if he even likes it, and if so, we'll buy him a better/bigger one if needed.

if anyone else is looking for one now http://www.walmart.com/ip/WeeRide-10-Ba ... e/13070207



nostromo
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03 May 2010, 3:32 pm

azurecrayon wrote:
He rides so well! And thank you for posting this video. I'd never heard of balance bikes before but had to go look around on the internet to find out more. Our 4 yr old asd child has trikes and a bike, but doesnt ride them since he doesnt like to pedal and wants to push with his feet, and pedals get in the way of that.

I mentioned these bikes to my SO, and he said he saw one at walmart the other day and was going to tell me about it. I looked online and they have a little balance bike for $29. We are going tonight to pick one up. Its a cheap model, but it will be a good start to see if he even likes it, and if so, we'll buy him a better/bigger one if needed.

if anyone else is looking for one now http://www.walmart.com/ip/WeeRide-10-Ba ... e/13070207

Yeah they are really good these little things. Our boy was/is just the same he cannot pedal.
When we first got this little balance bike I would take him up the the school and he would walk around sitting on it. Progress was slow. But then we let him walk then ride it around inside our house all day and he just leapt ahead in progress. The reason I let him use it in the house is if you look at it it has a number of features that mean it's highly unlikely to damage anything.
Its one of these, http://mocka.co.nz/balance-bikes.html they are made from birch ply (prices are in NZ dollars but you can get them many places I believe).
First there are no chains or anything greasy. The bike is designed so that there are no sharp edges it's all rounded and smoothed wooden corners and it is very light. The grips have big squishy ends.
And importantly the steering is designed so the bike can only achieve a certain amount of 'lock', i.e. the steering only moves so far before the 'fork' deliberately pushes up aginst the 'chassis' (LOL at the bad terminology I'm using but hope you get the idea!) and there is some rubber cushioning in that function too. This means when the bike will stand up against things easily, won't really touch the floor except for the handle grip, and the rear of the bike at just one contact point and also means when the child falls off their bike the fork doesn't whip around and so therefore the 'crash' effect is much lessened.
Hope that info helps!