From the time I was five years old until I was twelve, I spent every summer at a local recreational swim program because my Mom worked there as a water safety instructor. During those years I learned swimming from top flight instructors who were connected to the Red Cross National Aquatic school in our state. Because of the quality of the teachers I learned not only proper technique but also was well schooled in water safety. At the age of twelve I became a Red Cross Junior Life Saver. This officially ended my connection with the local swim program but not with swimming. After my first year in college I came home to attend the Aquatic School I had heard so much about. It was a 10 day intensive course that had you in the water every morning by 8 a.m. and seldom finished with classes until 5. We drilled to refine our strokes but also spent considerable time learning how to share teaching skills with others. First Aid and boating skills were also offered.
When I received my credentials as a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor (WSI) I had not only a great sense of pride and accomplishment but also felt that I had a real mission. I had knowledge and abilities that would be fun to share with others. I could and did use this certification to get a good summer camp job. But somewhere in the back of my mind I also realized that most important was the responsibility I now had to share information that would allow people to be safe in and around the water. In my years as a waterfront director and later as a mom with three young children, these are the steps I used whenever I was teaching young children to swim.
1. Make Sure Young Children Are Safe. Many parents want to teach their children to swim. But for all parents far more important than learning any skill is making sure that their children are safe. This is as true in the water as it is on dry land. So parents who want to teach their children need to be careful that in their approach they are including steps that will keep their young child safe and also make the child continually more aware of what it means to be safe in the water.
The safety aspects of teaching young children to swim involve the setting you are in, the placement of the people involved and the vigilance of the person doing the teaching. When teaching young children to swim always choose a child friendly setting, some place where you can work with small children in shallow water where they can easily touch bottom and the water is not more than waist deep. This means seeking out a shore line or a pool that offers a very shallow end. Trying to teach children in areas that drop off to deep water quickly or where there are waves is complicating an already demanding task. Children who are learning to swim should be taught in areas where they are facing in towards the shallow water or shore. Should they become upset for any reason that is the direction they should move toward. Parents who are teaching young children should make sure that if there is more than one child involved the children learn to automatically take hands as they walk out into the water. This teaches them the importance of watching out for a buddy while swimming. Those who are teaching young children to swim should stand in the water within easy arms reach of the children.
Parents have to be careful that for the time during which they are teaching young children to swim their entire attention and vision is glued to the children. In water activities of any kind there is absolutely no substitute for vigilance. It only takes a terrible instant for things to go very wrong, so always keep your focus on children in the water. Everything else can wait.
2. Build comfort and confidence levels. Teaching young children to swim isn’t only about learning a stroke to motor through the water. In fact at the outset it is really about getting children comfortable and feeling confident in a new and somewhat strange environment. There are lots of ways to establish these feelings but most involve heavy doses of parental involvement. Playing gently with your children, lying belly down on the bottom with them in shallow water, playing with water toys while sitting in shallow water, allowing children to maneuver on their bellies while you play the part of a huge tunnel with your legs, blowing bubbles in the water with nose and mouth are all ways of encouraging children to see water as a place to be safe but also a place where you can have lots of fun.
3. Basic shallow water drills. As children gradually become more at home in the water you will recognize that it is the right time to move slowly to some very basic water drills. These can be mixed in with shallow water play and should be enjoyable, almost like a new water game. Have your child rest on his or her stomach on the bottom of shallow water and try kicking their feet. Most kids have had some experience with kicking and won’t need much instruction, but you can help things along by getting down next to the child and kicking right along with them. This drill helps children to develop comfort with being on their stomach in the water. If you are working with more than one child it is wise to have your spouse or an older child on hand especially if you are getting in the water with the children. In the water there is never such a thing as too much safety.
While they are on their stomachs you can also help them to investigate the fun of blowing bubbles. This begins the long preparation they will need for eventually putting their face in the water and keeping it there. For those who seem quite comfortable, you can also have them try the kick on their backs. Again this is the beginning of a long progression that eventually will take them to the full development of floating and the elementary backstroke.
4. Moving into deeper water. Gradually even timid children will demonstrate their comfort level in very shallow water by moving out bit by bit to water just a bit deeper. When you see this begin to happen it’s time to have children hold hands and walk out together to where the water is at about thigh depth and then have the children turn and face the shallow water or shore. This is to remind them of where their safety lies and to keep their attention towards shallow water.
Ask the child to kneel down with you or with one or two other children. Now the water is likely to be waist or even chest deep. Children may find this to be a new experience and can get excited and begin to bounce around. It is important to be within easy reach of any child at this point.and to have a helper if you are working with more than one child in the water. Model for the child, putting your hands directly out in front of you on the top of the water and have the child copy. Then ask the child to try reaching out to you and pushing off from the bottom. The result you are looking for is a prone float or what kids for generations have called the dead man’s float ( not terms you want to use with young children) . But recognize that it will take many attempts before children will release totally from their toe hold on the bottom or allow their full face to stay down. But these are the things you can practice
It’s important to remember that young children have very short attention spans. They can play around with you in the water for ever but when it come to repeating drills they are less pleasantly disposed. The last thing you want to do is to make the “mini swimming lesson” something less than fun. Whatever the child tries should be received with great enthusiasm and only minimal correction. A few tries at a time is all that you should expect. Swimming is one of the most pleasant sports your children will ever learn so it is important from the outset not to pressure them to perform. They will get the feeling in their own good time.
5. Getting the face in the water The biggest stumbling block in teaching children the prone glide is to get them accustomed to putting their face fully in the water. For some it is a strange, frightening or physically unpleasant act. As a parent teaching young children to swim you will want to address the face in the water issue with a great deal of sensitivity. One thing to try is the very gradual approach. Instead of coaxing the child repeatedly to put his whole face in the water, break the action down into manageable parts. Let the child put an ear in, his chin, her cheek, a nose , one eye, the other eye and so forth until you can really make a case for trying multiple parts of the face in at the same time. It may take some time but it is worth your patience to work slowly and gently get the child used to this admittedly different sensation. Just know that once they get it, they will have it forever. It’s worth you time and effort.
6. Adding a kick Once the child has become comfortable with the prone float or really pushing off from the bottom and executing a prone glide, it’s time to add a kick. Some children simply begin to do this on their own as part of a natural progression. But most need some direction and encouragement. Review kicking along the shore everyday and then when you feel the time is right suggest that they add the kick to their prone glide. Always make certain when they are executing this stroke that they begin facing in towards shallow water. With a deep breath and a strong kick small children can find themselves in deep water difficulty very quickly. Remember the water will be over their heads much quicker than it would be over yours.
7. Arm over Arm stroke. Even small children have watched people move their arms as they swim either in person or on television. They will likely not need a lot of instruction to repeat the basic overarm stroke. But you can help by practicing it first for a few moments on dry land. Start with both arms reaching out front from the shoulder. Begin motion with one arm pushing it straight down until it is along the side of your body, now bend the elbow up and then extend the arm back to its starting position. Repeat using the other arm. You want children to get the idea but you don’t need to make this a precision action. They will have time to develop their arm stroke.
Once they have tried the stroke separately with each arm allow time to rotate the arm stroke so that as one elbow is bending the other arm is beginning its downward push. The arms will be stroking in alternating rotation. Let children try using the armstroke as the take the prone float position.
8. Put it together and what have you got? Teaching swimming to small children or really to anyone is about teaching in progression. Many things enter in to being able to motor across the water on your own. Feeling comfortable with your face in the water, taking a prone floating position, kicking hard with your legs, using an arm over arm stroke. Coordinating all of these things takes time. One way to help a young child is to continually practice the parts of the stroke and then put them together. First the glide, then glide with legs, glide with arms and finally arms and legs together. If you say these words enough they will become part of the child’s learned experience of swimming.
9. Down the road. Learning or teaching this beginner stroke should not be considered the end of swimming instruction any more than learning to add is the end of math instruction. To be safe in the water, children need to continue to develop their comfort level by expanding their repertoire of strokes, learning to float and tread water. but knowing a beginner stoke that gets the child using arms and legs with face in the water is a great first step to swimming safely and well for a lifetime. Regardless of how well your child develops this first beginner stroke if you have taught him safety near the water you have taught him a lot.
