The ‘ A , B , C , D ’ of cycling
ACTIVITY FEATURE
Lana Parker looks at the impact of a summer bike skills group on children and their families
© Zaikina via GettyImages
Occupational therapists within the Children ’ s and Young Person ’ s Therapy Service , Somerset Foundation Trust , annually run a Bike Skills group to support children to learn and develop this skill during the summer holidays .
Having seen the benefits of the group in person , the team wanted to demonstrate its effectiveness and positive goal-related outcomes on paper , with the use of a small survey to ensure the group remains a core part of the service going forward .
Offering a Bike Skills group has been seen by the team as an important part of the core service for a long time , with families regularly discussing the group as a functional goal during clinic appointments .
The group is routinely run over two weeks during the summer holidays ( three 45-minute sessions a week ) using advice created by occupational therapists from Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust .
A local outside space is rented by the service to complete the group . Aimed at children over the age of seven years , participants have included children with Developmental Co-ordination Disorder ( DCD ), Cerebral Palsy and Autistic Spectrum Disorder .
Using a ‘ top down ’ approach , children are taught the ‘ A , B , C , D ’ of cycling ( air , brake , chain and drop your bike to check for damages ), originally taught to the team by Somerset Bikeability ( linked with Somerset County Council ) and encouraged to get on their bikes straight away with the support of two adults and a manual handling belt .
With lots of repetition , support is then graded down as children develop skills with balance , pedalling ( forwards ) and steering , with the aim for them to be independent with bike riding , including steering on both tarmac and grass , by the end of the group sessions .
For this project , at the first session children were asked to complete a short survey of nine questions on their perceived skill base around bike riding , and also related social and gross motor skills such as scootering and willingness to try new gross motor activities .
Children scored their perceived ability on a four-point scale from ‘ I have a big problem with this task ’ to ‘ I am really good at this task ’. The scaling rating was presented in a child-friendly format from a smiley face through to a sad face . Children were then asked to rate themselves again at the last session .
Review of the information collected found that seven out of eight of the children reported improved skills with riding their bike without stabilisers , and five out of eight reported improved skills with independently putting their bike helmet on .
Children also reported an improvement in other wider skills , for example four out of eight children reported improved skills with playing with friends outside of school and three out of eight reported improved skills with trying new activities .
A further six-month questionnaire was sent out to review the longevity of the skills accumulated , with six out of the eight families returning their questionnaire . Five out of six of the families had continued to practise bike riding after the group and continue to be able to ride their bike independently .
Environmental factors , such as living next to busy roads and not being able to travel with bikes in the car , had impacted some families ’ ability to practise this skill regularly . Three out of six families had also noticed an ongoing willingness for their child to try new activities and reported increased confidence now in completing school-based cycling proficiency courses in the future .
Qualitative feedback was also collected from parents by asking for additional comments , and this included the following statements : ‘ His confidence has grown and he believes he can do things ’; ‘ It ’ s amazing that she can now ride her bike and with the current situation it has changed our lives . I can ’ t believe that after all the attempts we tried , you were able to get her cycling after 40 minutes . I can ’ t thank you enough , it has changed our lives ’; and ‘ He absolutely loved the group and felt safe riding with the support , and he had so much confidence ’.
Debbie Jackson-Wootton , an occupational therapist who regularly leads the groups says : ‘ The great thing about the bike skills group is seeing the children flourish and their confidence grow in such a short space of time . It really increases their self-esteem and it ’ s wonderful to see those changes .
‘ It gives the children some quick successes over a relatively short period of time and they only need to compare skills against themselves , for example , they arrived not being able to ride a bike and left being fully competent .’
It is hoped that the information from the survey demonstrates how important the bike skills group is for the children involved and their families . We believe that , in terms of an effective invention , it is a short therapy block that can be run by therapists and therapy support practitioners , with limited set up time and planning .
From therapist experience , it is also a consistent therapy intervention that has highly effective outcomes , but also supports the wider skills valued by occupational therapy , such as the development of independence skills and social engagement .
Lana Parker , children ’ s occupational therapist , Children and Young Persons Therapy Service , Somerset Foundation Trust
OTnews May 2021 45