What are the Benefits of Special Needs Swim Lessons?

Safety Concerns

When it comes to special needs children and their relationship with water, safety is always the number one concern. According to the National Autism Association, drowning is the leading cause of death for children with Autism alone. “In 2009, 2010, and 2011, accidental drowning accounted for 91% of the total U.S. deaths reported in children with an ASD ages 14 and younger subsequent to wandering/elopement”. With stats like these, it is clear that giving special needs children the tools to thrive in a body of water is extremely important.

So how do we ensure our children are building these water safety skills? Well, the very first step begins at home with parents being intentional about building a positive yet sober relationship between their child and water. We want our children to learn that swimming and playing with water is fun however we also want them to have a healthy fear of the water. Enrolling your child in adaptive swim lessons at a young age, before they start becoming reliant on flotation devices, can be a great way to go about doing this!

Developmental Benefits:

Beyond having peace of mind for your child's safety, private lessons are a great way to build your child’s confidence while nurturing physical, social, cognitive, moral, and emotional developmental.

Physical

Swim lessons have been found to be a great way to build muscular strength, flexibility coordination and tune gross and fine motor skills within special needs students. For students who have low muscle tone,private swim lessons are a great way to keep your child’s muscles engaged with regular activity. Specifically swimming has been known to build core strength and has the potential to increase balance and coordination within your special needs child. Children in swim lessons are also able to learn better breath control, expanding their lungs, leading to great heart health.

Social

Swim lessons offer a great opportunity for your special needs child to further their social development as they learn how to interact and connect with their instructor along with other students in their class. Instructors are in a position to clearly express and reinforce expectations along with demonstrating skill sets. If needed instructors are able to modify any drills or activity to fit each student's needs along with providing visual skills cards to better communicate what they are wanting the child to do. Instructors are encouraged to reward any positive social interactions leading to further advancement of social development.

Cognitive

Swim lessons are filled with many learning moments that are ready to be taken in by students' absorbent minds. Naturally students are observing and taking in anything that their instructor is saying or doing. Without knowing it an instructor can aid with cognitive development simply by speaking to their student, counting to ten while the student blows bubbles or by asking the student to dive for a blue colored ring. A study from Griffith University, based out of Australia, found that children who participate in swim lessons can actually advance cognitive development by 10 months.

Moral

In hand with social development, swim lessons can be a great way to expand your special needs child’s moral development. Within each swim lesson, students have an opportunity to practice kindness and grow empathy through basic interactions such as sharing or helping their teacher clean up after class. Having an instructor who sets proper boundaries within their class can be a great way to help a child process what behaviors are acceptable and which are not.

Emotional

Expressing and processing emotions can at times be hard for special needs children as many times they are unable to verbalize what they are thinking and feeling. Enrolling your child in swim lessons is a great way to provide a safe space where your special needs child is able to work through feelings such as fear and frustration and to have fun while doing so. Last but not least, swim lessons are a great way to build confidence within your special needs child as they are able to take pride in new skill sets learned and begin spreading their wings with their new found freedom.

Going Beyond

"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." - Special Olympics Athlete Oath

Every child no matter their biological make up or said abilities have been given certain sets of gifts and talents to be shared with this world. In order to allow for these gifts and talents to come forward we must get rid of any limitations or stigmas we have put on our special needs students and children. Providing a nurturing, can do, environment where children are free to test their limitations is a must when it comes to our special needs students! We as their parents and instructors are merely their guides helping unleash the greatness already inside them.

Do you have a special needs student who needs to improve their swimming skills? Learn more about our at-home swim program and bring the swim school to your pool today!

Brenna McKinnon’s bio:

Swim Instructor in Jacksonville, Florida

Hi, my name is Brenna and I've been teaching swim lessons for 15 + yrs. Experience includes working with ages infant to adult, along with special needs. I have 7 yrs experience as a nanny and hold 3 yrs experience as a governess. I have been a competitive swimmer from a young age, swimming in college, and now participating in triathlons. I hold a degree in Psychology from the UT Knoxville. I love being able to help my clients build confidence in the water and in their swimming ability!