Social stories is an intervention strategy for autistic children developed in 1991. Social stories is a strategy that involves having an adult work with an autistic child to develop and write a story from the child's perspective that helps the child deal with social situations. The purpose of the social story is to help the child learn self-awareness, calming and self-management skills. Though riding a bike involves many muscular and balance skills, bicycle safety and etiquette also involves social behavior that can challenge autistic children.
Benefits of Biking for Autistic Children
Biking provides fitness, health, mood and social benefits for everyone. Autistic children who have or can develop the cognitive and physical skills necessary to ride a bike reap many benefits. The physical experience of balancing, pedaling, steering, planning movement, coordinating with other riders and experiencing the tactile and visual sensations of wind and movement help enhance motor skills and sensory integration. Biking provides a social activity the child can do with family and friends.
Social Stories
Write social stories about bike safety in the present tense and first person using the child's perspective. You can read the social story together repeatedly to help your child understand and internalize the bike safety rules. Include descriptive sentences that address "wh" questions such as who is involved and what they're doing, where the action takes place and why they do what they do. For example, the child would write a story, "When I ride my bike I must wear a helmet. The helmet protects me." Include perspective sentences that convey your child's responses, such as "I feel like taking the helmet off." Directive sentences prescribe actions for the child, such as: "I can hold my comfort string. I can take my helmet off when I am done riding."
Bike Training
Use social stories to help your child deal with challenges of biking safety, but have those challenges fit your child's developmental level. Lower-functioning autistic children might not be able to handle the sensory challenges of riding a bike. Start your child slowly and incrementally in acquiring the various social, motor and safety skills necessary to safely ride a bike. Begin with a Big Wheel or tricycle in the driveway and work your way up to a bicycle with training wheels and then a two-wheeler. Your child may benefit from adult-controlled experiences that supply pedaling and sensory-integration experiences before graduating to a two-wheeler bike. Augmented bikes such as the Buddy Bike, an alternative inline tandem bicycle that places the child in front of the adult, gives the child an opportunity to pedal while holding handle bars and simultaneously surveying the environment while moving.
Bike Safety Topics
Children with autism can face particular challenges acquiring bike safety skills. Construct social stories to deal with these challenges. Autistic children with sensory defensiveness may resist wearing a helmet. Autistic children have difficulties in balance, but nonetheless tend to rely more on internal bodily or proprioceptive cues than on visual cues. They tend to be less sensitive to visual motion cues, which means they can be oblivious to pedestrians, traffic, parked cars with people getting out and other bikers. They can struggle with sharing sidewalk space with pedestrians or other bikes. Giving warnings when passing a pedestrian will not be natural for an autistic child, who is egocentric and less able to understand the needs, motives and likely behavior of a pedestrian or fellow cyclist. Additionally, review and include stories about other bike safety rules, such as described at the Consumer Product Safety Commission website.
References
- Autism Network: Social Stories: Introduction
- Buddy Bike: The Buddy Bike -- The Alternative Tandem Bicycle
- Consumer Product Safety Commission: Smart Routes to Bicycle Safety
- "Neuro Report"; Postural Effects of Motion Vision; Bruno Gepner et. al.; May, 1995
- Polyxo.com: Social Stories
- Spirit of Autism; Where Am I?; Debbie Taylor
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