Sink-or-swim training has many meanings in the worlds of business or medicine. It can mean throwing a person into a job or circumstance and seeing how that individual does with little support. When it comes to swimming, it means survival swimming --- trying to teach a child to swim by engaging his purported instincts. This type of swim training is the source of controversy.
Definition
Survival training involves teaching children to respond to immersion in the water at a very young age. The goal is not to teach a child to swim, but to survive should she fall into the water --- whether a hot tub, pool, fountain or the like. Instructors use brief, approximately 10-minute classes to teach an infant as young as six months to roll onto her back and float, Safe Start, a non-profit organization that teaches survival swimming, explains on its website. As the child gets older, she is taught to swim safely to the side of the pool.
Expert Insight
The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines on swim training in 2010. Previously, the AAP did not recommend swim training for children under age 4. However, its new guidelines recommend that children who are frequently near water and are between 1 and 3 might benefit from basic swim safety lessons. The AAP cautions that children must still be closely supervised; lessons are in no way a substitute for parental supervision near water.
Choices
Some parents believe sink-or-swim training provides crucial swim skills to a very young child. However, the lessons can be difficult to observe as children are exposed to survival situations and often cry or scream in response to water exposure. It is the standard for some youth swimming programs; others prefer a less-intense approach that focuses on acclimating children to the water slowly.
Benefits
The goal of sink-or-swim training is to prevent drowning. In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, more than 20 percent of drowning deaths in the United States occurred in children 14 or younger. Thirty percent of all fatalities in children aged 1 to 4 were the result of drowning. Safe Start reports that children who are taught how to respond to water immersion --- both in swim suits and street clothes --- can avert the potential for drowning using this method.
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