*** I asked C-man for his permission to post this, since it pertains to him specifically. He gave me an enthusiastic “yes” and asked to write a post of his own, which you can read here.

A little backstory… C-man was diagnosed with autism when he was six years old. In hindsight, we knew he was on the spectrum even when he was a baby, but being our first child, it was difficult to know for sure at the time. But we knew something was going on that he needed help with. I never could stop researching and reaching out to professionals until I felt that the pieces were starting to “fit”. This guy is extremely smart and capable, but I noticed he needed some accommodation and extra support to get him what he needed. It took until he was six years old for us to find the specialists who were able to give us the answer, the missing piece I had been looking for. Knowing our child has special needs is not something negative, instead it gives us an understanding of what help and accommodations C will need to achieve his best. And if you know C personally, you know how positive this kid is and how hard he works. He has a zeal for life that I admire. Anyway, onto the review…

C has always had some difficulty with bike riding… even at an early age. It took him longer to learn how to pedal, and when he got that down it was about time to graduate from a tricycle to a bike with training wheels. As he got older, his sense of balance was not growing with the amount of practice he was putting on his bike with training wheels. We took off the training wheels, thinking the “jump in the deep end” technique might be what he needed. That still was not working for him. It actually caused him to stop enjoying our bike rides like he used to. So Corry started to do some research. We did not know this at the time, but we soon learned that many children with autism never learn to ride a bike because of balance and coordination issues. This is not ok, every child deserves to have a bike that they can ride. So Corry kept researching. There are some studies that have shown that kids who use no-pedal balance bikes can significantly improve their balance, thus making the transition to a regular bike much easier. So Corry and I ordered C-man a Strider Sport bike in his favorite color, blue.

Within minutes of getting on this bike, C was starting to wheel around with his brother. We took the kids out to the walking trail and C was able to keep up with brother on his bike, by himself! C would turn around with a huge smile to see if we were watching him. It gave me goosebumps to see how proud he was of himself, and how much fun he was having. We will try C’s regular bike in about 6 weeks to see how his balance has improved, and in the meantime, I am so happy that he has a bike that he can ride by himself. I would absolutely recommend this bike to anyone who has a child who needs help with bike riding.