Autistic Teen Learns How to Ride a Bike!

Summer of 2020 was unlike any other for our family. Gabe turned 11 years old and his bonus mom Caroline decided to buy him a Strider balance bike for his birthday. She was determined to teach him how to ride a bike! When Gabe opened his gift he immediately wanted to try it! I will admit, I was surprised. I had no idea that Gabe had any interest in riding a bike. He is nonspeaking and at the time was not able to communicate with us like he does now. Gabe is now a Speller. Back then he was only using eye contact, body language, physical contact, and an AAC device to communicate. When Gabe graduated from the balance bike a very kind individual gave Gabe a very nice bike that his son had outgrown. Again, Gabe was eager to ride it! It took 2 weeks of daily practice on the balance bike before he was ready for the real thing. July 1 was the first day of radiation treatment for me. I went 5 days a week for the month. Each day I returned home to find Caroline and Gabe on the bike. She was running alongside him the whole time! He eventually was able to fully ride on his own. This was the best summer of my entire life! Seeing Gabe succeed at something I really did not believe was possible changed my mindset. We would have never known he could do this if we didn't try. The same with spelling. Gabe was having a blast riding his bike all over the neighborhood. Everyone was cheering him on as he rode past them. It was a big deal! My heart broke the day he stopped wanting to ride. We don't know why he didn't want to anymore. I assumed something scared him and that was the end of that in the fall of 2020. Fast forward to 5 years later. I am inside the house and Caroline calls telling me I need to get outside right now! I was freaking out! I thought something terrible had happened. I ran out behind the house and saw Gabe on his bike again! Once again, Caroline was by his side teaching him how to ride all over again. It will take practice, but Gabe is going to succeed again! This time we can have conversations with him about it. I can only imagine being able to communicate about being afraid for example would be helpful for him to be able to overcome it. I'm excited to start this journey again and feel so proud of Gabe for trying again! I am so grateful for Caroline's love and perseverance with everything she does with Gabe, but this is the best. The best memories I have over the last 16 years are from that summer when Caroline worked so hard with him. It was happy, exciting, and fun. I wasn't focusing on the radiation at all. This is what life is about. When I saw Caroline with Gabe on the bike again I felt the same as I had back then. Stay tuned to see how this goes! Follow Us...   / fortheloveofgabepage1     / nicolegottesmann     / nicolegottesmann1   SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE!    / @fortheloveofgabe