We recently published a video on ‘What to Expect in Your Baby Swimming Lessons?‘
Baby swimming lessons are a great way for parents and caregivers to enjoy an activity with their child and help them develop a lifelong love of water. In these classes, babies and caregivers learn to relax and become confident in the water. This early experience sets the tone for all future learning.
As children grow, they will progress to learning the swimming strokes. The learn-to-swim process should follow a building-block approach and progress according to children’s individual readiness. These swimming skills include water familiarisation, breath control, submersion, floating, and propulsion.
During swimming lessons, children will also learn vital water safety skills like entering the pool safely, monkeying to find a place to exit the pool, turning and climbing out of the pool, independent mobility, and back floating. Caregivers will also be educated on vital water safety topics like active adult supervision, teaching children a respect for the water, and being encouraged to learn CPR.
Baby swimming lessons can start between 4 and 6 months of age or when the parent feels comfortable. Remember, any time is a great time to learn to swim. Regular exposure is key when learning to swim. Ideally, children will attend 2 formal swimming lessons per week and be given regular opportunities to experience water play with their caregiver. Swimming lessons usually involve a group of adults and their children, which provides the perfect opportunity to build social connections. Great swimming programs will include a mixture of structured learning and a variety of learning through fun activities and play.
In this video, we examine a swimming lesson for 16-month-old Lulu. Lulu has had 2 swimming lessons a week since she was 4 months of age. Over a 12-month period, you will notice that the baby has developed a range of independent swimming skills. These swimming skills include holding on and doing a monkey along a wall, down turn arounds, independent swimming on “ready go” invitation, swim arounds, exploring deep and shallow water, developing paddling and kicking skills, improved balance, coordination, and body awareness. It’s important to note that all children should be encouraged to progress according to their own individual readiness.
If you are interested in enrolling your child in baby swimming lessons, be sure to do your research and choose a program that is safe, appropriate, and fun.
We’ve broken the video up into easy to navigate sections to help with finding the topic you are looking for:
Chapters 0:00 Swim Lessons 0:22 Safety Turns 0:35 Swim Around 0:54 Monkey Wall 1:28 Ready Go 2:06 Kicking 3:01 Climbing Fun 3:40 Coordination 4:27 Building Independence 4:39 Shallow Water 5:11 Crocodile 5:21 Water Depth and Balance 6:28 Independent Submersion 7:26 Turning And Gripping