Cycling camp for special needs children

Lose The Training Wheels is a group of big-hearted people who run camps to help special-needs children learn to ride bikes. Their goals are to educate all who will listen that bike riding can be efficiently and safely taught, and that the universe of people capable of riding bikes is larger and less restrictive than previously realized.

They use specially adapted bicycles to allow children to "Lose the Training Wheels." Dr. Dick Klein, a retired professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and his wife have dedicated their retirement to studying the difficulties special needs children have riding bicycles. Dr. Klein has developed a series of training bikes that have proven successful with children who suffer from autism, cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities.

I met the Kleins when I lived in Illinois a few years ago. They are everything you might expect of the kind of people who run this kind of program, and more! A story about the benefits of Lose the Training Wheels is in The Brunswick News. Via Spokes 'n' Folks.

Tags: cycling bicycle special+needs urbana autism cerebral+palsy disability