Be Prepared: Teach Your Young Child Bicycle Safety

It's not ever too early to begin teaching a child the essentials of bicycle safety. Bicycle related accidents account for approximately 200 deaths in children below the age of 15 annually. The many chilcren requiring professional health related attention for a bicycle injury is over 300,000 with higher than 8,000 of those youngsters requiriing hospitlization. The Children's Security Network estimates that those statistics should double without bicycle helmets. The fact that helmets keep the lives of cyclists is undisputed, yet parents often relent when children refuse to wear a helmet.

Do not be afraid to take a stand. Any lesson on learning to ride a bicycle should begin with bicycle safety. These lessons can begin as early as preschool age or even before. Parents should set an example for their children by wearing a helmet themselves when riding and insisting their child do similar if they can be in a bicycle seat or bicycle trailer. Kids in preschool and younger aren't ready to handle the tough challenges of negotiating the rules of bicycle security alone, but they can begin to learn.

Beyond wearing a helmet, parents should be constantly reviewing the basics of bicycle security with their toddler age children. Display your child the parts you think about to be safe for riding. When riding with a child, stop at intersections and stop signs and explain howcome you can be creating these security stops. Most people emphasize balance as first lesson of bicycle riding and it is important, but bicycle survial skills are the greatest important. A child should be taught how to stay away from a crash prior to they learn how to balance.

The Bicycle Helmet Security Institute creates the following recommendations:1. Always stop prior to riding into the street. Confirm behind you prior to swerving, turning or changing lanes. Always ride on the right side regarding the street. Not ever follow another rider without obeying rules 1-4.

Mastering balance and learning to ride shall be attained at an early age. It's a child's inability to process the details that allows us to realize the inherent dangers in bicycle riding that creates the activity risky. Their limitation is their inability to grasp the danger inherent within the activity. They will not understand it without consistent, repeated lessons from their parents Begin teaching them bicycle security early and make it an emphasis on every ride. Display them the safe parts to ride, how and when to stop and remind them regarding the rules to stay away from a crash.