WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN BABY SWIM LESSONS:

There are several factors that parents should consider when choosing an aquatic program for their baby. The class size, instructor training and credentials, course content, instructional style, cleanliness and temperature of the pool are important elements to contemplate before deciding on in a swim school.

Class Size is Small

There should be at least one instructor for every 4 to 5 children with the parents holding the children and participating in the (parent/tot) lessons. The teacher student ratio should be small enough so that an instructor can give each child individual instruction in addition to group activities. There must always be a lifeguard on the deck.

Instructors are Highly Trained and Credentialed

Instructors should be certified as a lifeguard with yearly re-certifications in CPR and First Aid for the professional rescuer. In addition they should complete an intensive certification course for baby swimming which includes childhood developmental education, safety in-services, and practical sessions in the pool. This assists the instructor in understanding the developmental phases his/her students will pass through during their aquatic education and provides him/her with the tools to teach a successful program. Back ground checks should be required for every swim instructor and staff at an aquatic facility.

Ordered Class Content

Babies should learn breath control, submersion, floating, propulsion and water safety skills.

• The lesson plans should be ordered in a step-by-step plan of development where one skill is built upon another in proper order. The skills should be practiced over & over so that the child learns them to the automatic level.
• There should be a skill set associated with advancement into each new level and the parent should know exactly what is expected of the child in each level he/she is enrolled in.
• When a child does not improve his performance of a certain level, the instructor should move the child back down the vertical scale to discover the links he/she has missed.  Then, practice skills in the previous level until the child is confident to move on. This allows the child’s nervous system to organize the sensations and direct information to the proper nerve pathways and muscles needed to perform the skill accurately.  

Water Safety Skills are Taught

The goal for water safety lessons is to prepare the child for an emergency situation if he/she falls in the water accidentally. When a child learns to hold his/her breath, kick to the surface and then roll over onto his/her back, he/she can rest, breathe and call or yell for help. The child should then learn the swim-float-swim sequence. This water survival technique is the standard in the swim school industry. The student is trained to climb to the top of the water, rotate to his/her back for a short rest period. Then he/she rolls in a horizontal position back onto his/her stomach, rolls back onto his/her back to rest and continues a swim-float-swim sequence until he/she reaches the safety of the wall or steps and climbs out. Thousands of children in California, Arizona and Florida continue to be saved by this proven technique.

Nurturing Instructional Style

A good program builds upon a child’s successes. The instructor should always be nurturing, positive and supportive. If the child is constantly fearful, frustrated, and unable to perform the skills, some changes should be made.

• An aquatic instructor should show (visual) the student; tell (auditory) him and guide (proprioceptive) him, before she expects him to act in an adaptive manner.
• Then he/she must walk the child through the skill, without submersion, using gentle guidance, manipulating his/her every move before expecting him/her to perform the skill under water.
• Patient preparation and practice is critical to the child’s security, confidence, and enthusiasm for water safety lessons. The most important ingredient for success is loving, gentle support, and never imposing techniques on a child with the use of force.

• When a child is introduced to the water and is forced to repeat one skill over and over again without the advantage of the building blocks learned in a progression of skills the results could be harmful.
• In an effort to teach a child water safety skills in a short period of time, some methods submerge a very beginning student repeatedly to get him/her to rotate onto his back to breathe and float alone. The basic breathing and motor skills that allow his/her nervous system to organize the sequential steps necessary to direct his/her swim and float have been omitted.
• This places the inexperienced swimmer in what he/she perceives to be a “life or death situation”. If practiced repeatedly this places a child in the chronic stressful situation of “saving his/her life” every time he/she swims which can produce high levels of cortisol in the brain.
• This could be detrimental to the child’s emotional and cognitive development that may not manifest until later in childhood.

Clean Facility

The pools must be permitted by the local government agency such as the Health Department or County Department of Environmental Services. These agencies regularly test water quality, safety and cleanliness of the facility.

• The pool must be heated to ensure that it is warm about 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

The air temperature must also be warm and comfortable, approximately 80 degrees.

• Young babies can become cold very quickly. So, they should be kept in the water away from cool drafts and wrapped in a towel immediately upon exiting the pool.

BENEFITS OF EARLY SWIM LESSONS

Water safety is only one of the benefits of involving children in early swim lessons. The social, cognitive, physical and emotional advantages are huge. First of all, swimming is fun! If a child is having fun, his brain is more receptive to learning. Young children enjoy doing simple activities: mastering breath control, swimming to the steps, jumping into the pool & paddling to the side, floating, and being praised for these accomplishments. The praise a child receives for a job well done gives him a feeling of acceptance and is necessary to build his self-esteem.

Accelerated Neurological Development

Scientific studies of at the German Sports College Cologne have shown that early year round swimming lessons for babies, toddlers and young children accelerated their development physically, intellectually and emotionally. As compared with a control group which did not take year-round lessons, the children who swam consistently from infancy were significantly stronger and more coordinated. The children also scored higher for intelligence and problem-solving, which carried over into excellence in academic achievement. Emotionally, they were found to be more self-disciplined with greater self-control and an increased desire to succeed. They rated higher in self-esteem and were more independent and comfortable in social situations than the control groups (German Sports College 1979).

Physically Stronger, More Coordinated

More recent studies conducted at Norwegian University of Science & Technology in 2009. Dr. Hermundur Sigmundsson has shown that baby swimmers: developed better balance, movement and grasping techniques than non-swimmers (Science Daily, 5/10).

This difference persists even when the children are five years old when babies who have been taught to swim still outperform their peers.

Accelerated Cognitive Development

Researchers in Melbourne Australia reported in (Healthmade, March 8, 2011) that children, who were taught to swim by 5 years, had statistically higher IQs.

• The research also showed the high water resistance strengthens the child’s muscles more rapidly than playing on the floor.
• Swimming uses all of his muscles, if playing on the floor only certain muscles are working.

Babies can move more freely in the water, using their whole body

Increased Memory Capacity

Recent studies have shown the amount of movement and exercise child engages in affects the size & memory capacity of the hippocampus.

• A 2006 study at the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh, conducted by Art Kramer analyzed the volume of the right and left hippocampi and the reasoning of 165 adults.
• They discovered the higher fit people have a bigger hippocampus” (Kramer, Erickson and Colcombe 2006).
• People that have more tissue in the hippocampus have a better memory. There seems to be a significant correlation between fitness level and increased ability in certain types of memory.

Increases Communication between Both Sides of the Brain

Fascinating new research reports that a baby’s brain develops through bilateral cross patterning movements like swimming. The more cross patterning movements, more nerve fibers are developed in corpus callosum between both hemispheres.

• The corpus callosum is a tract of nerve fibers (200 million nerve fibers) that connect the right & left cerebral hemispheres of the brain.
• They facilitate communication, feedback and modulation from one side of the brain to the other,

Allowing both sides of the body to be used together in a coordinated and functional manner

• Cross patterning movements activate both hemispheres and all 4 lobes simultaneously, resulting in heightened cognition and increased ease of learning

Enhances Tactile Bonding

• The tactile resistance of the water over the entire body stimulates the neural development because water has 600-700 times the resistance of air.
• Tactile system is the 1^st sensory system to develop in the womb and it is very important in overall neural organization. Without a great deal of tactile stimulation in a young child the nervous system tends to become unbalanced
• The skin is the boundary of self and is the primal source of comfort & security in an infant.   Touching is a crucial part of the parent infant-bond. The tactile resistance of the water establishes a deeper emotional bond because parent and baby are face to face, skin to skin, being touched & held in the water.

Strengthens Social and Emotional Confidence

In swim lesson, the child meets other children and tries new things. Through active movement in a group, the child gets to know himself and sees his connection with the rest of the world. It’s a way for him to understand his relationship with others.

• Feeling special, loved and wanted builds self-esteem through a sense of belonging. Being part of a group also adds to the child’s societal development and sense of well being.
• Swim class has abundant opportunities to share space with other children and explore movement together.
• A child begins to recognize his own uniqueness and the uniqueness of others.
• He cooperates within a group structure to learn and becomes involved in creating and enjoying moving together. This strengthens his emotional confidence.