by Lana Whitehead, Elite Swim and Gym
Baby swimming is not only a fun, life-saving activity, but it has a myriad of benefits for a very young child’s development. Baby swim classes can also help increase a baby’s alertness, intelligence and concentrating abilities.
Swimming and Brain Development:
Early swimming prepares a child for higher learning. Scientific studies of very young swimmers at the German Sports College, Cologne have shown that early water movement develops the child in three key areas: physically, mentally and emotionally. As compared with a control group which did not take year-round lessons, the children who swam consistently from infancy (three months) were significantly stronger and more coordinated when tested at 2, 3 and 4 years. The children also scored higher for intelligence and problem-solving, which carried over into excellence in academic achievement. They were found to be more self-disciplined with greater self-control and an increased desire to succeed. From consistent goal setting and skill achievement in swimming, they rated higher in self-esteem. Finally, the children were more independent and comfortable in social situations than the control groups.
In 2009, Griffith University in Australia, embarked on a 4-year Early Years Swimming Research Projectwith 45 swim schools across Australia, New Zealand and USA. The results showed that children, under the age of 5, involved in learn to swim are more advanced in their cognitive and physical development than their non-swimming peers. The results also revealed more marginal benefits to social and language development. In 2011 researchers in Melbourne Australia determined children who were taught to swim by 5 years of age, had statistically higher IQs because of their early sensory/motor stimulation in the water.
Recent university research confirms the amount of person’s exercise and movement affects the size and memory capacity of the hippocampus, the memory and learning area of the brain. Art Kramer and his colleagues at the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh discovered that people who move more or “higher fit people” have bigger hippocampi. They concluded that more tissue in the hippocampus equates with increased ability in certain types of memory. This explicit or declarative memory is necessary for the recall of events and facts needed in academic learning.
Early swimming or paddling around promotes cross lateral patterning. Bilateral cross patterning movements in crawling, walking and swimming aid in overall efficiency in brain processes. The more bilateral cross patterning movements, the more nerve fibers develop in the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is a tract of 250 million nerve fibers that connect the right and left hemispheres of the brain and facilitate the communication, feedback and modulation from one side of the brain to the other. Cross lateral movements like swimming activate both cerebral hemispheres and all four lobes of the brain simultaneously, which can result in heightened cognition and increased ease of learning.
In 2009 research has shown that swim lessons for babies advanced their physical development. Studies conducted at Norwegian University of Science & Technology with Dr. Hermundur Sigmundsson and his colleagues found baby swimmers developed better balance, movement and grasping techniques than non-swimmers. This difference persisted even when the children were five years old; the baby swimmers still outperformed their peers in balance, movement and grasping skills.
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