Tricycles are evasive products. As a parent, you seem to remember that it held a place in your childhood, but where exactly does it fit in your toddler’s life? Are 2 years of age too young for them to pedal? Should you wait for them to grow up a bit and then start them directly with learning bikes?
Here’s the thing; the tricycle world has been through a revolution since your own childhood, Tricycles are no longer just 3 wheels and some metal parts. Tricycles go as early as 6 months (!) and offer improved features you didn’t think you needed. So, the best trike for 2-year-olds is actually a trike for 1-year-olds.
Wait, what?!
You might be thinking, my 1-year-old isn’t ready for a tricycle – are you crazy?! It seems so soon!
One-year-olds are at that great age where kids really start to come into their personalities. Maybe they’re already walking or maybe they’re speediest when crawling from point A to point B. Perhaps they say “mama” or “dada”. Maybe they love books during bath time. It’s in that crucial moment, that they can absorb and learn so much if we give them the opportunity to.
That’s where baby tricycles come in handy.
Never heard of a baby tricycle before? Let us explain
First experiences have a very important effect on the future. The growth of your baby’s brain is affected by the care and experiences you provide, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
With safety, convenience and child development benefits, early-age tricycles can help your baby develop valuable skills. By preferring an active ride-on over a passive stroller seat, you can watch as your baby safely learns how to steer, pedal and process various stimuli from a very young age until the age of 3 and beyond.
Top 6 features that’ll make you a fan of 1-year-old tricycles
Developmental benefits
According to Rachel Coley, MS, OT/L, an Occupational Therapist and the owner of CanDoKiddo.com, smarTrike encourages pedaling which is very powerful “brain food” – encouraging reciprocal movements that encourage maximum communication between the two sides/hemispheres of the brain.
“As a pediatric Occupational Therapist, I know how important it is to support emerging motor skills as children practice, practice, practice. The features of smarTrike products allow caregivers to give varying levels of support as needed based on their child’s developing skills. This type of flexibility makes learning a positive experience for kiddos.”
Compared to a “regular stroller” she says, [a] smarTrike gives a child a feeling of independence (even if they are still dependent on an adult for pushing and/or steering). Developmentally, this need for independence is crucial in toddlerhood.
Touch Steering
Any baby item that we have to push or carry around has to raise these two questions – is it lightweight and is it easy to steer? Will I, as a parent, find it comfortable to push and take on walks? smarTrike tricycles check a positive to all these questions. They have the brilliant Touch Steering system that makes gliding along with your baby breezy and seamless.
When you go around, running errands, you want your trip to be as stress-free as possible, so parents gotta make sure their transportation is just as comfortable for us as it is for them. smarTrike tricycles are perfect for that, thanks to their patented mechanism that really makes steering as intuitive as walking by ourselves.
2 modes, 1 product
With a press of a button, you can decide who has control of the tricycle. As your baby is too young to steer anyway, this may not seem like a big deal. But as they grow up and want to practice steering on their own, you can easily give that control, and then take it back when they tire or you need this trip to move along.
The easy switch from child control to parent control and the other way around, allows you to let your baby try pedaling and steering on their own, and when they get tired, it takes a second to take back control of the trike as you let them rest a bit in the comfortable reclining seat.
Grow with me
Nothing you buy these days lasts long enough for you to say you got your money’s worth. That’s why it is so rare and refreshing to find a product that not only is made sturdy enough to last for its full intended lifecycle, but that is also changing and adapting to your child’s size and skill level by progressing in stages, each beneficial to a certain age-range.
Since all smarTrike products grow with your child, they’ll last for years without having to replace a tricycle for 1 year old with a trike for 3-year-old. With ours, they’re one and the same!
Pedals
Learning to pedal comes in stages too. With a smarTrike you can have your toddler’s feet resting on the first stage pedals, acting as a footrest and disengaged from the trike’s movement. That means that your child can try pedaling or rest their feet at the same time, while you steer along effortlessly, and without getting any rotating pedals that may hurt their feet.
Chic
We’re all Instagram parents, are we not? This may seem like a minor benefit, but having a ride-on with cool looks, with a kid that can’t control their enjoyment, is a picture-perfect moment for your story or next family album. Just this of all the amazing footage you’ll have while preparing their next birthday collage or video!
To conclude, we’ll say a smarTrike is worth your time, as kids outgrow things all the time, a tricycle doesn’t have to be one of them. And they’ll enjoy these early-childhood development lessons on a daily basis, for years to come.
