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H2-(N)O?
Is Your Baby Ready for the Backstroke?
By Johnathon Allen
Techniques for teaching children how to swim have come a long way since the days when parents employed the somewhat barbaric method of tossing their 5-year-old into a pool while standing at the edge waiting for the child's survival instincts to kick in. Today, "gentle swimming" programs around the world successfully teach babies as young as 6 months old to be mobile in the water.
Given that drowning ranks as the second highest cause of death for children younger than 5 years in America (No. 1 in California, Arizona and Florida) the issues of how and when parents should teach their children to swim are worth considering.
"There are a number of excellent reasons for teaching toddlers to swim," says Rob McKay, founder of the Lifestyle Swim School in Boca Raton, Fla. "The best reason is probably just the sheer joy of it, but it's also a major confidence builder for the child. I've noticed that once kids develop a feeling of calmness and self-trust in the water, that confidence spreads to the world around them."
McKay – whose swim school now teaches 400 babies a year ranging in age between 6 months and 3 1/2 years – says that this is true only in regards to learning the formal strokes (i.e. crawl, backstroke and butterfly). "Many people think you have to do a freestyle stroke to be 'swimming,' but if you ask most experienced baby instructors, they will tell you that swimming is simply 'harmonious movement through the water,'" he says. "The success of child-focused programs around the world proves that infants and toddlers can learn to swim. The important thing is to be gentle. A parent or teacher should never force a child to do something he doesn't want to do. The secret is being playful and gradual."
"Babies are born with a natural affinity for water that they often lose over time," says McKay. "It's good to orient them to being in the water as early as possible so they can maintain their natural enjoyment of it. We wait until the 6-month mark because they're more alert and able to hold their heads up. Really, the best time to introduce babies to swimming is just before they reach 19 months. Then they are physically developed enough to be mobile in the water, but they haven't hit the mental blocks that can come along with being 2."
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