For children with disabilities, adaptive cycling provides motivational and therapeutic opportunities to build muscle strength and improve range of motion, balance, and hand-eye coordination. As a result, adaptive cycling as an intervention is gaining traction with a growing body of research focused on supporting its use.
In 2019, Armstrong and colleagues published the first systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the Efficacy of bicycle interventions in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy..1 This review analyzed nine studies with a total of 282 participants aged 2 to 18 years, with mixed walking abilities. The review concluded that adaptive cycling could improve muscle strength, balance and gross motor functioning in children with cerebral palsy. The authors encourage further research to determine functional retention of skills acquired through adaptive cycling and to determine optimal dosing parameters.
In 2019 and 2020, Armstrong and colleagues first published a research protocol and then explored adaptive cycling with a randomized controlled trial that examined the Efficacy of combining different forms of cycling with goal-directed training for children with cerebral palsy..23 The researchers recognized that adaptive cycling in a community setting required the child to overcome ground resistance and hone navigation skills. Therefore, Armstrong added functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling to the intervention to improve overall adaptive cycling outcomes.
The target population for this trial included twenty-one children, ages six to 18 years, who were not walking independently at GMFCS levels II-IV. After eight weeks of the combined cycling intervention, these children showed improvements in gross motor function, objective performance, satisfaction, and maximal cycling endurance compared to the control group.
Then, in 2022, to address the research gap in their initial systematic review, Armstrong and colleagues examined whether these children retained the benefits of the FES-assisted, goal-directed program.4 The researchers found that eight weeks after the program, the children continued to demonstrate clinically important gains in gross motor function, improvements in performance and goal satisfaction, cycling endurance, sit-to-stand speed, and ability to perform tasks. daily life activities.
These findings support adaptive cycling as an effective and promising intervention to improve motor and social outcomes in children with cerebral palsy. The adaptive bicycle intervention, beyond its motivational fun, demonstrates a measurable therapeutic impact that can prepare the child with disabilities for a more functional future.
