sensory processing and riding a bicycle

Published November 14, 2009 by Nancy

Ah, the summer joy of riding a bike… whooshing down the street, flying down the hills and racing up the other side, zipping across town in five minutes flat…

Alas! for kids with SPD, riding a bike ain’t like that.

Imagine square wood wheels and unscrewed handlebars. Add a seat so high you have to lean down to hang on.  Then imagine riding along a freeway with transport trucks rumbling and belching and pulling at the air beside you.

Fun, huh?

Why is cycling so hard for SPD kids?

Their vestibular sense is not plugged in securely to their brain.

Vestibular = balance = keeping upright and moving forward

You have to be able to feel the balance and the forward movement. Not easy if your vestibular sense can’t communicate to your brain. You never really know where your body is relative to gravity and the hard, hard road below you.

Even two or three years after learning to ride a bike, lots of SPD kids are unsure on a bike. Think of a slow earthquake, or a canoe in choppy waters. Up goes their adrenaline and panic… and down goes their ability to focus on their balance.

And too often, down goes the bike.

Also, their proprioceptive sense is too weak (or too strong).

Proprioceptive = muscle strength and control = pushing, pulling, and lifting

You have to be able to control your leg and arm muscles to keep the bike going at a level speed. Slowing down too much, pedalling unevenly, or putting too much weight on one handlebar — any of these can all tip over the bike.

Going uphill is hard if the leg muscles are floppy. And shifting gears becomes something to panic over if your brain gets confused when it has to send messages to the hands and feet at the same time.

Not to mention that without a good sense of sound and sight, you’ll freak out in traffic.

Think about it. If you are concentrating on keeping your balance and sending all the right messages to your hand and leg muscles, there isn’t much room for other information. Anything can set you off.

Meanwhile, you are sharing the road with noisy cars that creep right up beside you.

You know they’re dangerous. You know you have to follow the rules of the road. But there is only so much room in the brain.

It becomes too much to handle.

Yet biking is an essential skill.

Bikes are the main mode of transportation for pre-teens and teens. They need to be able to get around, to go over to a friend’s house, or even to get to a job. So just avoiding bikes is not a good option.

Remember: an SPD kid can learn to ride a bike. It just takes more time to build up all those missing nerve pathways.

In the long run, it will do the kid a lot of good. Those nerve pathways can be used for a lot of different tasks, such as climbing a ladder, canoeing, or dancing.

So make it as easy as possible.

1. Don’t buy a cheap kid’s bike. These bikes are all the standard “mountain bike” style, where the rider is hunched over the handlebars. This position is difficult for balance. Go to a reputable bike store and find a hybrid bike. Hybrids use the old-style frame, which lets you sit more upright, but they have all the up-to-date gear and wheel systems. It is far easier to keep balanced on a hybrid than it is on a mountain bike. Also, it’s far easier to see the road ahead of you if you aren’t hunched over.

2. If possible, get a frame with a low crossbar. The high crossbar makes it difficult for the rider to stop — or to stand  on the pedals for going uphill. Your kid will feel safer being able to touch the ground.

3. If your kid gets confused by the hand-controlled gear shifts, then simplify it. Teach just three gears: the main one for flat roads, one gear up for uphill, and one gear down for downhill. That’s it. Forget the rest. If your kid can learn to shift just one gear at a time, then the skill is there for changing two gears later on. In the meantime, avoid big hills.

4. Ride every day. Ride together. It doesn’t have to be far. Short and successful is great. Can you bike to the store for a treat? To the lake to skip stones? To the park to go on the swings?  Keep it calm and positive.

5. Keep the tires inflated and the bike height-adjusted. SPD kids won’t necessarily feel when the tires are soggy, or when the pedals are cramped. They’ll just feel confused. Each confusing or unpleasant bike-ride is several steps backward. To keep things positive, keep them technically perfect.

6. Don’t ride in rain or cold, even a small amount. Remember, SPD kids feel cold and damp more than other people. So weather will add a new sensory irritant that you really don’t need. Bike only when it’s going to be successful, and avoid anything that will make it go poorly.

And if you think it’s bad when they’re learning to ride a bike…

Just wait till they’re learning to drive your car.

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Judith wrote in with another suggestion: bikes without pedals.

Learning to ride a bike that has no pedals can bypass some of the motor issues so that the kid can focus just on the balance issues. You can view these European inventions in action on Youtube.

Breaking down the bike-riding task into balance first, then motor might be a brilliant solution for SPD kids.

How hard would it be to take an old kids’ bike and jimmy it to ride without pedals?