Pedal power: How our pioneering Trike Workshops are helping pupils go the extra mile

Challenges, including limited resources, funding and knowledge, has resulted in cycling being inaccessible for many children with disabilities, despite the wealth of benefits it can bring. Here, our Clinical Partnerships Manager, Kieran Murphy, reveals how our innovative Trike Workshops are helping reinvent the wheel for children and schools across the UK.

Our vision is to provide a bright and inclusive future for all children. Inclusion can mean many different things, for instance, access to education, therapy and care.

But what about inclusion for activity and fun?

Children and young adults with disabilities encounter numerous barriers to participation and activity in many aspects of life. In 2022, the Chief Medical Officer published the Activity Guidelines for Children and Young Adults with Disabilities.

Common stumbling blocks

Before the publication of the Activity Guidelines, there was very little legislation or guidance aimed at building physical activity into the lives of those with limited mobility. Therefore, institutions, such as schools and therapy services, were limited in relation to how they could explore this and introduce more physical activity into everyday life.

Many of the schools we visit do have trikes on-site, which is encouraging to see. However, feedback from staff is that it can be difficult to decide which pupils can access them because their trikes are:

• Old and are no longer being serviced – in turn, they are no longer fulfilling individual needs
• Difficult to adjust – staff struggle to confidently use them with children, preventing pupils from getting to try them in the first place

To add to this, school staff also told us they were unsure how to build trike activities into the curriculum with limited resources.

Foundational skill

Learning to ride a bike should be an integral and inherently fun childhood activity. It helps progress young children’s mobility and is therefore seen as being a foundational skill that reinforces physical activity throughout children’s lives.

The social model of disability suggests that a person is disabled by society, rather than their impairment, which could partly explain the low cycling rates. For instance, appropriate adaptive tricycles are often identified for a child, but aren’t funded by the local NHS service in the same way as other mobility devices are. In other circumstances, schools may not have enough facilities or space to allow for safe navigation and transfers. As a result, inclusivity and access to mobility devices that are often the gateway to physical activity is extremely limited.

Spearheading positive change

We spent some time reflecting on the situation. This included exploring how our product range could be used to help spearhead positive change, and resulted in us identifying the Rifton Adaptive Tricycle as an ideal solution.

The tricycle provides a wide base of support, while its multiple tool-free accessories support a range of needs and abilities, enabling children of all ages and abilities to access the wonderful world of cycling.

Introducing – our Trike Workshops

From this point, our idea to launch Trike Workshops across the UK was born, which would overcome the barriers associated with lack of public funding and raise awareness of the Activity Guidelines, as well as the physical and holistic benefits of using adaptive trikes, such as the Rifton.

Delivered by our clinical team, the sessions included a CPD-accredited, 45-minute presentation to therapists, teaching staff and parents followed by plenty of action – children getting the chance to try out the trike for the first time on the sensory track we set up at their school. The highly sensory track included bumpy railroad turns, crinkly fire blankets, popping bubble wrap sections and a parachute blanket tunnel, as well musical and light-up toy pit stops.

Since June 2022, more than 1,000 children have taken part in our Trike Workshops and received a Trike licence, providing them with a true sense of achievement and a highly positive way to round off the experience. Many of them had never experienced pedalling, let alone the added benefits of navigating a race track with their friends.

Here’s what a couple of schools had to about their Trike Workshop experience:

“We had an amazing day when the trikes came into Kelford. It was amazing to see our young people so happy and excited about riding a trike.” – Kelford School, Rotherham.

“We can’t express enough, how much of a good day the students and staff had, so thank you! We’ve had such amazing feedback from all the students who took part.”  – Valence School, Kent

Thanks to our workshops, many schools and individuals are now using the Rifton Adaptive Trike every day, broadening the opportunities to incorporate physical activity into pupils’ lives, with plenty of achievement, inclusion and, of course, fun, along the way.

For best practice advice on using the Rifton Adaptive Trike at your school or therapy setting, please email: hello@jiraffe.org.uk

About the Author

Kieran qualified as a Physiotherpist in 2016 at the University of Salford and later attained an MSc at the same university in Advanced Physiotherapy. He completed his core rotations before becoming a senior paediatric physiotherapist for the NHS in Greater Manchester, UK.

Kieran’ s experience as a physiotherapist has seen him provide a wide range of holistic therapy to children with developmental delay, complex neurological and physical disabilities and musculoskeletal injuries. He continues to work alongside his role as Clinical Partnerships Manager for Jenx with a small caseload of private patients and as a locum therapist.

Kieran has a keen interest in supporting adolescents with cerebral palsy and the management of hip dysplasia.