Ryegate Bike Group

Physiotherapists and occupational therapists at the Ryegate Children’s Centre have been running the Ryegate Bike Group since 2006 to help children with co-ordination difficulties learn to ride a bike.

Since the programme started hundreds of children have taken part in the group and nearly all of those have been able to ride by themselves at the end of the lessons.

Children must be under the care of Ryegate therapists to be eligible to take part in the Bike Group.

Training sessions

The group typically consists of four to five one-hour lessons during which children progress through different stages of learning how to handle and ride a bike:

• putting on and fastening their own helmets
• holding the bike by the handlebars and walking with it
• using the handbrakes to stop the bike
• mounting the bike
• scooting on the bike with pedals off
• scooting down a slight hill and braking
• mounting the bike with the pedals on
• pushing off and pedalling
• pedalling with support
• pedalling without support

Children are supported at all times in a way that allows them to learn how to balance the bike themselves. Parents are taught these techniques so that children can continue bike riding practise when they return home.

Video

Watch our short film about the Ryegate Bike Group during a series of sessions held at the English Institute of Sport in April 2014.