Yesterday I had the great pleasure of working with two students, one of whom had Cerebral Palsy and Autism. We were completing a level two Bikeability course and whilst none neither of them students were regular cyclists they really wanted to complete the course.
I made a few adaptations to how I gave instructions and praise as well as making sure I used lots of friendly checking questions after demonstrations to ensure understanding and well-being. I also made sure that the riders could sit down whilst observing the demos or during the teaching so that weak muscles were given a rest. Feedback was two ways with the riders telling me how I did on each teaching point and how clear I was on what I wanted and how fun or challenging they found the drills.
The end result was that both students completed the course and both agreed more practice was needed to become fully competent in certain areas, but more importantly the student who had cerebral palsy thanked me at the end as she could now cycle to her weekly horse riding sessions.
I thanked her for giving me the opportunity to teach her and for helping me understand her additional needs even more so that I could help others like her.
I have been teaching Bikeability with Cyclist Training Ltd for over fourteen years and it's still teaching me and giving me some fantastic days at work