Benefits Of Swimming For Children With Learning Difficulties

Dedicated health care professionals and parents alike sometimes forget that children with learning difficulties are kids, too. Recreation provides kids physical and social outlets to relieve stress, build confidence and just have fun. Children with learning disabilities face many obstacles in life, and loneliness sometimes slips under the radar. Swimming activities build bodies and boost mental skills for kids of all ages and abilities and have a few benefits that other sports cannot match.

Physiology

Humans need movement to keep healthy. Some of the benefits of swimming include improved cardiovascular function, toned and increased muscle mass, lower body fat and improved pulmonary function. The physiology of swimming involves all systems in the body and results in lowered blood pressure and reduced cholesterol levels.

Swimming specifically benefits children with physical impediments that accompany learning difficulties. Increasing lung capacity is one benefit of learning to swim and hold breath underwater. Tight or painful joints and tendons stretch when exercise takes place in water. Weight-bearing exercises such as running or jumping stress joints, but swimming is a low-impact activity and generally has low injury rates associated with it, according to the book "Developing Recreation Skills in Persons with Learning Disabilities" by Lorraine C. Peniston.

Mental Health

Swimming is effective in reducing anxiety, according to an article published in the "International Journal of Sport Psychology." Water is a soothing environment, and swimming emphasizes gentle and repetitive motion, so those children who normally withdraw from stimulating activities benefit. The gentle pressure of water on the body helps calm some children with autism spectrum disorder, and the insulating quality of water reduces potentially enervating noise when children swim underwater, says the American Swimming Coaches Association.

Swimming fast helps kids work out frustrations and feelings of anger, just like any athlete. After moderate to strenuous physical activity, the body produces endorphins, a substance that is a natural painkiller and mood-elevator. Boosting endorphins through cardiovascular exercise such as swimming creates a sense of well-being and serves as positive reinforcement for a healthy lifestyle, says Peniston in her book.

Social Interaction

Kids with learning disabilities struggle with many things as they develop and make their way in the world, and the fear of failure might loom large. Comparing their abilities to others might reinforce awareness of their own physical and perceived intellectual limitations.

Interacting with others at the pool helps build social skills and boost moral. Participation in a swimming team is particularly useful because it teaches children how to excel on a personal level while cooperating in a group. Any competitions, which involve children with learning disabilities must focus on inclusiveness and achievement, according to "Adapted Aquatics Programming: A Professional Guide." Winning accolades and medals for participation regardless of relative accomplishments puts a smile on a child's face and a healthy dose of self-esteem in her psyche.