Adaptive Tricycles Can Change Lives: The Zwiercan Family Tell Their Story

Transcript

Mother: <<<“So are you sure you want braids? Yeah, of course you.”>>>

I mean Ashlynn – the older she gets, she’s able to ask for things that she sees, you know. She wants to, you know, go to the park and play. She wants to go on swings. And this whole year she has just been so infatuated with riding a bike, you know. “Mommy, can I ride a bike, when can I get my bike, when can I ride a bike?” And you know, as a parent that’s always trying to figure things out for their child that lives with a disability, I’m thinking to myself – “How am I going to do this? How am I going to pull this off, you know?” And she sees her brother riding his bike, and she wants to do the same.

So that’s kind of where I put the advocacy in motion, and I started reaching out to Rifton to see how we can get a bike for my daughter. When we first showed her the bike it was just the joy. Just, oh my God, she was so excited: “That’s my bike? That’s my bike? That’s my pink bike?!” And she just kept saying it. And it made me so emotional that we were able to give her something that, you know – children want to do, right, something normal in my child’s, you know, atypical life. I was able to give her that experience. And so I think that was something that was really emotional for us.

She asks every single day to ride her bike, multiple times a day. She tells everybody, “I have a new bike!” It’s given her confidence. Her therapists have told us that when they ride the bike, it’s the most she talks; it’s the most she gets excited; and it’s the most progress they’ve seen – her trying to use her legs. It’s been such a great experience for us.

Father: And for a child that isn’t able to, you know, ambulate on her own, this is something that gives her agency to experience the world around her in a way she hasn’t before. And she is controlling it, you know.

Mother: <<<“We’ll help you. Mommy and Daddy are behind you; we’ll help you. There you go!”>>>

Father: And for our daughter, and maybe with other children – sometimes they may see the therapeutic devices as work they don’t want to do. So I like to joke that the Rifton Trike really is like therapy. And she’s excited to do it! So it’s been really encouraging for me, as her father, to see her really pushing the bike and moving it on her own, and reproducing those movements like walking.

Mother: Yeah, it’s been such a gift to us.

I think one of the first things that, you know, we would love to see, is all kids like Ashlynn be able to have a bike experience; and, you know, working with – I don’t know if it’s policy or working with, you know – state, local, federal levels where this is part of her growth. This is part of her therapy, this is necessary for her well-being. So I would love to see all kids like Ashlynn, and adults, have this opportunity to enjoy a bike. I think it’s just so important for kids to be kids.