Exactly 18 months ago, I wrote one of my favorite and initially most popular posts: Lessons from a Tricycle.
At that time, Ashlynn was close to 4 and still could not pedal a tricycle. I describe how we bought it a couple months before her third birthday when I was pregnant with my son. A year later, I wrote that post and explained that she STILL wasn’t able to ride it. When one has motor planning difficulties, the steps involved in riding a tricycle become glaring.
Core strength
Bilateral coordination
Vestibular and propriocepive systems
Balance
Strength
Endurance
Who knew one needs ALL of the above to do a simple childhood rite of passage like ride a tricycle. In that blogpost, I described “arched back and frazzled patience.” My back hurt every time I tried to teach her how to ride. I would lean over and pull or push her, while she struggled just to keep her feet on straight. I wondered time and time again, will she ever actually get this down? Do you have any idea how heartbreaking it was to have her “walk” her trike back home?? I knew deep inside though she would get it one day. I wrote,
“Success will surely be there, waiting more patiently than me.”
After having my son, I realize how easy people have it. I didn’t teach my son anything. I gave him his big wheel and said “have fun.” I didn’t have to teach him how to keep his feet on the pedals. He just did it. I didn’t have to remind him that while he was pedaling he had to look up and pay attention because he was going to fall off the curb. He just did it, and I’m so proud of him. He loves flying down the street on his big wheel shouting “faster! FASTER!!”
I remember my husband posting enthusiastically when Ashlynn had actually purposefully and independently pushed the pedal forward herself and propelled herself for at least two rotations. We were so sure she had arrived. That was it right? She got it down, right?
No, no it wasn’t. The motor plan wasn’t quite carved out enough in her brain. At least, that’s how I imagine it. I imagine pathways in her brain as a ski slope full of thick powder. Every motor activity requires her to carve a path herself to the bottom. It’s hard. It’s tiring, and when she gets back up the hill to try again, she may swerve off track and be forced to try again.
Once the motor plan is mapped though? Oh boy. Then it’s like the groomed hill, wide and easier to maneuver. I dare say we are beginning to revel in the groomed slopes.
She rode her trike around the block tonight. As I watched her in front of me, the sun was setting, and there she was….laughing, smiling, turning the handlebars when she was in danger of veering off the curb, and going as fast as she could and then stretching her legs out in front of her to feel the wind on her face. This to me is childhood.. This to me is what apraxia had robbed from her for so long. As I watched her, hair blowing carefree in the wind, the setting sun once again caught my gaze….and I realized, the sun was setting on a chapter in her life. There it was….success…just as I predicted, waiting more patiently and more beautifully than I ever could have imagined.
Here’s the video if you’re interested. Warning: She’s so far ahead, she’s hard to see 🙂
