Many parents today are discovering ways for their child(ren) to be engaged throughout the day with less screen time. Too much screen time can negatively affect children’s behavior, physical health, and cognitive functioning. Hence, encouraging fun and physical activities such as riding a bike can not only be engaging for your child in the short term but also beneficial for their development in the long term.
Why Your Child Needs To Learn How To Ride a Bike
Teaching a child to ride a bike takes time, patience, and effort. While it may be challenging to teach your child how to ride a bike, there are important reasons why you should take the time to teach them this valuable skill. These reasons include coordination enhancement, advancing self-sufficiency, and promoting outside play.
Enhances Your Child’s Coordination
One key variable of effective child development includes refining their coordination skills. Hence, teaching your child to ride a bike will advance their motor integration skills. This means your child will learn to combine multiple movements that their body can perform simultaneously to maintain balance and control while riding a bike. Such spatial awareness while biking will enhance the child’s muscle strength to evade various obstacles during the activity such as bumps in the sidewalk or animals, objects, or other people passing by their path.
Advances Independence and Self-Sufficiency
When children ride a bike for the first time, they start with training wheels. As he or she builds bodily balance in this phase, removing the training wheels is the next step to improving coordination and balance. As your child learns the coordination needed to push down on the pedals with their legs and steady their upper body with their hands on the handlebar, it will be time to remove the training wheels. From there, he or she can use their core body strength and leg muscles to balance themselves on the bike without training wheels.
Promotes Outside Play
Riding a bike is one of the many fun and healthfully beneficial activities a child can enjoy while promoting outside play. In this world of advanced technology, more children are attached to their screens watching television and playing virtual games than getting the exercise they need.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that children exercise at least one hour daily. Bike riding can grant multiple health benefits for your child while also building confidence and coordination.
The Health Benefits Of Riding a Bike
Because bike riding works multiple muscles and organs throughout your body, your child’s health will benefit from regularly enjoying this physical activity. Your child will reap the following health benefits as they learn how to ride a bike:
- Lowered stress levels.
- Stronger bones.
- Improved muscle flexibility.
- Stronger muscles.
- Disease prevention.
- Reduces the risk of long-term diabetes, arthritis, and other chronic conditions.
- Helps to battle depression.
At What Age Do Children Ride Bikes Without Training Wheels?
According to Stanford Children’s Health, children as young as age 4 or as old as age 8 are developmentally prepared for removing the training wheels. However, every child develops at their own pace, so the official age for your child to transition will depend on their mental resolve and overall coordination skills to handle a traditional bike ride.
