What Age Should a Child Get a Balance Bike?

There is a special relationship that exists between the time a child may be introduced to a balance bike and the stage of development they are experiencing.

Due to this fact (and yes we absolutely confess to our subjective bias once again here) we believe that a balance bike holds superior importance to any other toy that a child may be presented with during this critical developmental period.

As stated before on our website, we believe that a balance bike is not just a toy, it’s far more beneficial than that (see our series The Benefits of Balance Bikes For Toddlers).

A balance bike is a developmental powerhouse that nurtures all areas of a child’s development.

Now, these are powerful and profound statements, and we acknowledge this too. But how is this related to what age a child should be introduced to a balance bike?

Well, to best answer this question, we think it’s essential to look at what the research informs us is happening at this crucial period in a child’s development from a psychologist’s perspective and then, relate this information directly to how this will affect when a child is ready to explore the wonderful opportunities a balance bike can provide.

And that’s what our post, What age should a child get a balance bike? is all about.

Focusing on balance bike riding and childhood motor development specifically, we are going to ride along into the following elements, to help answer this important question for you.

• The first motor skills: reaching, grasping, walking
• The role of culture and experience
• Factors responsible for childhood motor development
• Factors related to motor development variation
• The significance of sport and play to motor development
• Overall conclusions

You can see the potential thesis that could emerge from such a wonderful topic that is rich in history and research. Rest assured, we will only provide a snippet of the psychological evidence that is available in our post. We aim to keep this brief, concise and more importantly, balance bike relevant!

So, get yourself comfortable with your favorite brew and enjoy our latest post, What age should a child get a balance bike?

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Balance Bike Riding and Childhood Motor Development

The First Motor Skills – reaching, grasping and walking

Let’s start, well, at the beginning, by giving you a very brief look into the trends of motor skill development, as this will hopefully help you recognize each stage in your child’s growth and better understand our goal of this article.

That is, to decide what age is best to introduce your child to a balance bike.

Motor skills are voluntary movements of the body, or certain parts of the body. They can be grouped conveniently into gross motor skills (large muscles of the legs, arms and torso) and fine motor skills (small muscles located throughout the body).

The sequence of development, broadly speaking, follows two trends known as the cephalocaudal (head to tail) and proximodistal (near to far) principles. Basically, these first motor skills are expressed by upper parts of the body before the lower parts (head to tail) and, from the center of the body outward.

So, what exactly does this look like? Well, quite simply, children will begin to reach, grasp, and amazingly walk as these motor skills become increasingly complex and refined.

Now pause for a moment here. We just mentioned walk!

This is not only a significant developmental milestone, but one that presents a wonderful opportunity for parents to now introduce our secret weapon to nurture child motor development. Namely, a balance bike.

But why? Well, if your child can walk, they can begin riding a balance bike.

Now that’s very cool!

At this very young age we recommend some smaller, lighter balance bikes that are highly rated in the balance bike market due to their excellent designs and safety features.

We believe your child will absolutely love to begin their bike riding journey on any of these great options below.

• Strider 12 Sport (USA) or (AUS) or Strider 12 Sport Pro (AUS)

• GOMO (USA) or (AUS)

• Cruzee (Amazon AUS)
• Kinderfeets Wooden Balance Bike (Amazon USA) or (Amazon AUS)

• FirstBike Cross (Amazon USA) or (Amazon AUS), and

• Banana Bike (Amazon USA) or (Amazon AUS)

The role of culture and experience

Here, we will briefly touch upon how culture and the experiences inherent within may influence a child’s motor development.

Let’s cut right to the chase here. From a psychologist’s vantage point, we know neural and muscular systems are important determinants when considering childhood motor development.

The ultimate experience to complement these however, is practice!

The opportunities provided to practice these essential skills is the key environmental determinant for a child’s motor development.

So, what are the implications for child rearing and introducing a balance bike to your child?

Practice matters. Therefore, it’s super-important that parents provide ample opportunities for physical play and we can think of no greater means than to introduce your child to a balance bike before they can ride it.

Yes, you read that correctly, before they can ride. But why?

By introducing a balance bike to a child at, for example, let’s say 12 months, and having this sit in your child s play space, you are inviting your child to play and familiarize themselves with this wonderful toy. They can look at its colors, touch its shiny parts and even sit on the seat, or get a feel for the grips. It’s just always there, like teddy!

This provides a more natural introduction to riding that wonderful looking toy when the time is right, rather than your child seeing something completely foreign and then learning how to control this strange object while riding it.

Therefore, we highly recommend introducing a balance bike to your child passively, as a toy prior to their walking and beginning to learn how to ride.

Factors responsible for childhood motor development and developmental variations

Factors responsible for childhood motor skill development
As children progress from infants, to toddlers and to preschoolers, their motor skill development progresses through certain milestones, such as crawling, walking, running in a straight line and jumping in the air using both feet.

These skills are typical of 1-3.5 year olds and their explanations are well researched and widely documented in childhood psychology.

These findings clearly show that motor skill development is the result of three main factors. These include;

1. physical / physiological development
2. neural development, and
3. practice opportunities

Just like culture and experience rely on practice to bring about advances in a child’s motor skill advancement, again we see that practice opportunities afforded to your little one during these years is essential in consolidating and refining new motor skills throughout early childhood (Craig, Kermis, & Digdon, 2001).

Again, we feel that our suitably admitted bias towards encouraging every child to learn how to ride a balance bike / bike is well justified by the experts in childhood developmental psychology 🙂

In essence, what they are saying is that any opportunity that can be given to a child during these crucial developmental years to practice physical skills will, along with changes in muscular strength and body size, allow their motor skill development to thrive.

Therefore, introducing a balance bike for example, at this crucial time, encourages a wonderful outlet for fun, exploration, creativity and physical challenge that is absolutely tops at supporting a child’s motor skill progression.

Head over to our article Balance Bike Riding Ideas For Toddlers and Preschoolers for some practical suggestions to help encourage your little rider as they learn to ride a balance bike.

Here is another highly recommended balance bike that is the world’s only extendable bike! The smarTrike 3-in-1 convertible balance bike converts from a balance bike to a pedal bike, so it literally grows with your child!

Xtend 3-in-1 Convertible Kids Balance-to-Pedal Bike

Factors related to motor skill development variations

The previous section focused on the three key factors responsible for childhood motor development.

Therefore, it’s perfectly understandable that these three factors will undoubtedly, to a degree, cause developmental variations in children that differ in their experience with each of these.

We have already mentioned how culture and a child’s experience within it (their environment) and practice opportunities can influence a child’s motor skill development.

There is one further factor that is worth mentioning, mainly due to the misconceptions that surround it.

That factor is gender or sex differences.

In a nutshell, when considering motor development variations and gender, the following conclusions are well-supported by childhood developmental research.

• boys are slightly superior in activities that require strength, and
• girls are slightly superior in activities that involve balance and fine motor coordination

“We advocate for all children to be introduced to a balance bike prior to being able to walk regardless of their gender, culture or environment!”

The differences above perhaps are not so surprising. However, the key word in these statements is slightly!

The differences are minimal. But how does this, and the above key factors impact my child’s age to begin riding a balance bike?

Well, quite simply, it doesn’t!

We advocate for all children to be introduced to a balance bike prior to being able to walk regardless of their gender, culture or environment and, we encourage parents to provide as many opportunities as possible for their little rider to practice the skill of bike riding.

That is our key message that we wish to share with you in our post.

Before we round out our article, there is one final avenue that is directly related to the information we have just presented to you.

That is, the importance of sport and play on motor development and balance bike riding.

The significance of sport and play on a child’s development

Balance bike or bike riding is a form of play and sport. It combines the two just nicely and is a form of sport and play that we unabashedly encourage all children to explore and enjoy.

“underlying that shiny exterior, padded seat and grippy handlebars is a developmental powerhouse!”

From the outside, it looks like fun, and at times hard work and challenging to say the least, but what are the hidden gems that this wonderful little bike may contribute to my child’s overall health and well-being?

Great question. The answers will amaze you.

Underlying that shiny exterior, padded seat and grippy handlebars is a developmental powerhouse!

Play and sport, or for the purposes of our post, balance bike riding specifically, provides a significant boost for a child’s overall development and is not just restricted to improving their motor development.

We won’t go into huge detail here, but in summary, the developmental aspects that are improved from a child’s consistent exposure to riding a balance bike include;

Physical

• helps combat obesity
• improved physical endurance
• improved heart and lung function
• improved sleep

Social-Emotional

• achievement motivation
• improved friendships and social support
• improved mental health

Cognitive

• improvements to academic performance
• improvements to perception, memory, judgment and reasoning

Wow!

How is that for a mind-blowing summary of what riding a balance bike can do for your child’s overall development?

Like most things in life, it’s what’s on the inside that really matters.

Those hidden benefits, the physical and physiological advances that are being nurtured behind the scenes while a child is learning to ride a balance bike are absolutely amazing and truly worthwhile.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read our post and invest in your child’s overall development by learning more about what age is appropriate for them to get a balance bike.

Today, we have covered the following key elements with you to help answer that question.

• A child’s first motor skills – reaching, grasping, walking
• How culture and experience influence a child’s motor development
• What factors are responsible for child motor development
• Factors that contribute to motor development variation, and
• The significance of sport and play to child motor development

Then, we considered our measured responses to these in light of when, or more specifically, what age would be best to get your child a balance bike.

If you have any questions about this post or comments, please leave these below. We further invite you to ask any questions related to balance bikes and let us know how our article may have helped you. We love hearing from you.

Happy riding 🙂