Using the Bicycle for Treating Handicapped Children
Bicycle riding has both health and social advantages for most people. It constitutes a physical aerobic activity that engages large muscle groups using something that is readily available from childhood up through old age. Bicycling can be practiced outdoors, and indoors on an exercise bicycle.
Bicycle riding has a positive influence on how we feel by reducing depression and fatigue and developing balance and coordination. It is good for healthy people and even more so for those who are developmentally challenged.
Many studies have shown that sports activities strengthen the self-confidence of challenged children, improve physical appearance and enhance feelings of capability. The blind especially, face the problem of enjoying their free time and taking on physical activities to maintain their physical fitness.
Bicycle riding gives those children with motor limitations a feeling of controlling their movements that is lacking when they are on their feet. This feeling assumes greater importance the less mobile a child is.
Experience in controlling a mode of transport is especially important for those children who will in the future have to control a motorized wheelchair. Bicycle riding is a treatment method that combines the physical with the social, and with the proper equipment can help everyone
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