Congratulations—your child has graduated from their tricycle and is ready to hit the big-time in the world of bicycles! Aside from a helmet, training wheels are probably one of the first things that most of us think of when buying our children their first bicycle, and they can be helpful when used properly.

Training wheels can help your child overcome fear of falling over and develop balance and confidence, and ultimately lead her down the road to bicycling independently. If you choose to try training wheels in helping your child learn to ride, make the best use of them with these simple tips:

Make sure that the bicycle size that fits your child is training-wheel friendly.

Once you and/or the bicycle shop staff have determined the correct size bicycle for your child, decide whether training wheels are the best choice for learning. Bikes with the smallest wheel sizes—12 to 16 inches—typically come with training wheels and are best suited to their use. While a 20 inch bike may also include them, its higher profile makes it more susceptible to tipping over, and so not as safe to ride with training wheels. In this case, an alternate method of teaching is a better choice.

Adjust the training wheels correctly.

To learn to ride a bicycle without assistance, your child obviously needs to develop a feel for balancing on two wheels. This means that to be effective, training wheels should not be at the same height, or lower than, the bottom of the bicycle wheel. In the beginning, the training wheels should be slightly higher than the bottom of the bicycle wheel so that the bicycle wobbles a bit from side to side during riding. As your child's confidence and stability—along with pedaling and steering skills—grow, continue to adjust the height upwards, allowing more and more wobble.

Find the best terrain for your child to ride.

Fairly flat, even ground makes the best surface for a child to ride with training wheels since it ensures that the bicycle wheel (rather than one or both training wheels) stays in contact with the ground most of the time. If the ground is very uneven it can lead to frustration and a loss of braking control as the bicycle wheel lifts off the ground.

Always supervise your child's riding speed.

Training wheels make it easier for a bicycle to tip over on turns, so keep an eye on how fast your child is pedaling. Once you've watched them turn a few times at different speeds, you should be able to determine their safest maximum speed.

Follow your child's lead in deciding when to remove the training wheels.

Since each child learns new skills and develops confidence at their own rate, some may be ready to ride without training wheels fairly quickly, while many others may need more time. Be patient and use your best judgment. However, if after using training wheels for more than a year (in their correct position as described above) your child seems to depend upon them too much, it may be time to gently suggest that she leave them behind. Of course it's a very exciting day for every child and parent when the training wheels come off.

Now all that's left to do is get that bike, put on those training wheels, and get going!