20"Bike and Training Wheels
For Christmas I bought my daughter a 20" Bike. she is 9 and very tall, but has never had a bike before so she doesn't know how to ride. She's autistic and also extremely cautious so she's sort of afraid of falling. So she can't ride the bike, she'd had it for months and I feel like a crap parent because I've been so busy I haven't done much of anything about it. We bought her training wheels to put on the bike but when they came it we could not put them on. I spoke with a local bike shop but haven't taken the bike there yet. Unfortunately, he seemed to think it was most likely that the axle was too small on the bike and there would be nothing I could do. I hate that she's had this gift for so long and not been able to use it.
Any suggestions? Anything at all? Am I really going to have to buy her a whole new bike?