Little Tikes made a Peloton-like bike for kids, but child development experts cry foul
Washington, DC (CNN)The indoor cycling craze has come for America's kids, and child development experts aren't happy.
Little Tikes, the children's toymaker, watched sales of Peloton's stationary bikes soar last year when the pandemic hit. It saw a chance to create something for children to enjoy alongside their parents, according to Little Tikes vice president of product development Kevin Bloomfield.
So this summer Little Tikes released the Pelican, a stationary bike for children ages 3-7, with a screen attached for viewing videos. Pelotons, the popular stationary bikes for adults, come with screens that can display exercise classes and add a social touch to exercising alone. (The bike costs $1,495 and there's a monthly membership fee of $39 to view video classes.)
"We didn't want the parents to be the only ones having all the fun," Bloomfield said in an email to CNN Business. "Our commitment to inspiring an active and imaginative lifestyle among kids sparked the idea."
Stationary bikes have existed for kids before, but have not lasted. Toymaker Fisher-Price launched a $150 stationary bike for kids in 2007 and updated it in 2017. Fisher-Price then cut its price to cut its price to under $100 and now no longer sells the bike. It declined to explain why. The bike was sold exclusively on Amazon, which also declined to comment.
But child development experts aren't having it. They say a stationary bicycle, especially one with a screen attached, is a step backward for what a bicycle can mean to child development. Kids riding a stationary bike lose the learning experiences that come from roaming their neighborhood on foot or on bike.
"It just feels so bogus to me. And it doesn't feel like something that kids will use a lot," Roberta Golinkoff, a University of Delaware professor who studies child development, told CNN Business.
"Kids want to be part of the real world," said Lenore Skenazy, the president of Let Grow, a nonprofit promoting childhood independence. "A stationary bike doesn't prepare them for anything but moving their legs in a circular motion."
Child development experts say that active play like tag or bicycling prepares them to succeed in life because they interact with people and build problem solving skills. Outdoor play helps kids create categories, like the different types of houses or dogs in their neighborhood.
"You can burn calories on this [stationary bike], but you can't get to know your neighbors," Skenazy said.
But Bloomfield said that Little Tikes doesn't feel the Pelican should or will replace a regular bicycle. Little Tikes "created a product that would make kids happy and stay active regardless of the state of the world," Bloomfield said. He added that their research found children wanted to emulate their parents on stationary bikes.
"We wanted to give the option for a safe and engaging experience alongside mom and dad's stationary bike," Bloomfield said.
The Pelican incorporates fun exercise into kids' daily activities, he said, and is an alternative to flopping on the couch after school. Most kids don't get enough physical activity, he said.
But Jason Boye, a pediatric psychologist in the Healthy Weight and Wellness Clinic at Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, cautioned CNN Business that using exercise equipment can create negative associations with physical activity.
"Kids can develop an association of being forced to do an activity and make it something they're not interested in doing," Boye said. He's concerned about the bike being used solely as a means of physical activity, but he said placing the bike alongside a parent's Peloton's to ride together would encourage quality time. Family bonding is one of the Pelican's benefits, Little Tikes' Bloomfield said.
CJ Rich, a Florida father who owns a kids' stationary bike said he bought it for exactly that reason.
"I thought it would be awesome for him to have something to copy me," Rich said of his son, who is now 6 and mostly rides a bike with training wheels outside. Rich thinks the stationary bike helped make his son more confident on his outdoor bike with training wheels.
The stationary bike isn't used as much recently, in part because Rich sold his Peloton. (Peloton declined to comment for this story.) He was tired of Peloton's monthly fees and bought a mountain bike to ride outside instead. But he expects his younger son, age 2, will ride the stationary bike once he's big enough.
Little Tikes 为孩子们制造了一辆类似 Peloton 的自行车，但儿童发展专家大喊犯规
华盛顿特区 (CNN) 美国孩子的室内自行车热潮已经来临，儿童发展专家并不高兴。
儿童玩具制造商 Little Tikes 目睹了去年大流行来袭时 Peloton 固定自行车的销量猛增。 Little Tikes 产品开发副总裁凯文·布卢姆菲尔德 (Kevin Bloomfield) 表示，它看到了一个机会，可以为孩子们创造一些与父母一起享受的东西。
因此，今年夏天 Little Tikes 发布了 Pelican，这是一款专为 3-7 岁儿童设计的固定式自行车，附有一个用于观看视频的屏幕。 Pelotons 是一种广受欢迎的成人固定自行车，配备的屏幕可以显示锻炼课程，并为单独锻炼增添社交元素。 （这辆自行车售价 1,495 美元，观看视频课程的会员费为每月 39 美元。）
“我们不希望父母成为唯一享受所有乐趣的人，”布卢姆菲尔德在给 CNN Business 的电子邮件中说。 “我们致力于激发孩子们积极和富有想象力的生活方式，这激发了这个想法。”
以前为孩子们提供固定自行车，但没有持续下去。玩具制造商费雪在 2007 年推出了一款售价 150 美元的儿童固定自行车，并在 2017 年进行了更新。费雪随后降价将其价格降至 100 美元以下，现在不再销售该自行车。它拒绝解释原因。这辆自行车在亚马逊上独家销售，亚马逊也拒绝置评。
但儿童发展专家并没有这样做。他们说固定式自行车，尤其是带有屏幕的自行车，对于自行车对儿童发展的意义来说是一种倒退。骑固定自行车的孩子们失去了步行或骑自行车在附近漫游的学习经验。
特拉华大学研究儿童发展的教授罗伯塔·戈林科夫 (Roberta Golinkoff) 告诉美国有线电视新闻网 (CNN Business)，“对我来说，这感觉太假了。而且这感觉不像是孩子们会经常使用的东西。”
“孩子们想成为现实世界的一部分，”促进儿童独立的非营利组织 Let Grow 的总裁 Lenore Skenazy 说。 “固定式自行车不会让他们为任何事情做好准备，而是以圆周运动的方式移动他们的腿。”
儿童发展专家表示，像标签或骑自行车这样的积极游戏让他们为在生活中取得成功做好准备，因为他们与人互动并培养解决问题的能力。户外游戏可以帮助孩子们创建类别，例如他们附近的不同类型的房屋或狗。
“你可以在这辆 [固定自行车] 上燃烧卡路里，但你无法了解你的邻居，”斯凯纳齐说。
但布卢姆菲尔德表示，Little Tikes 不认为 Pelican 应该或将取代普通自行车。布卢姆菲尔德说，Little Tikes“创造了一种产品，无论世界状况如何，都能让孩子们开心并保持活跃。”他补充说，他们的研究发现孩子们想在固定自行车上模仿他们的父母。
布卢姆菲尔德说：“我们希望提供与父母的固定自行车一起安全且引人入胜的体验的选择。”
他说，鹈鹕将有趣的运动融入孩子们的日常活动中，是放学后在沙发上摔倒的另一种选择。他说，大多数孩子没有得到足够的体育锻炼。
但特拉华州内穆尔儿童医院健康体重与健康诊所的儿科心理学家杰森博伊告诫 CNN Business，使用运动器材可能会对身体活动产生负面影响。
“孩子们可能会产生一种被迫做某项活动的联想，并使其成为他们不感兴趣的事情，”博伊说。他担心自行车仅被用作体育活动的一种方式，但他说将自行车与父母的 Peloton 一起骑行会鼓励有质量的时间。 Little Tikes 的布卢姆菲尔德说，家庭纽带是鹈鹕的好处之一。
CJ Rich 是佛罗里达州的一位父亲，拥有一辆儿童固定自行车，他说正是出于这个原因才购买的。
“我认为他能有一些东西来模仿我会很棒，”里奇谈到他的儿子时说，他现在 6 岁，主要骑自行车，外面有辅助轮。 Rich 认为固定式自行车让他的儿子对他的带辅助轮的户外自行车更有信心。
固定式自行车最近不太常用，部分原因是 Rich 卖掉了他的 Peloton。 （佩洛顿拒绝对这个故事发表评论。）他厌倦了佩洛顿的月费，而是买了一辆山地自行车去外面骑。但他希望他 2 岁的小儿子长大后会骑固定式自行车。
