Importance Of Swim Lessons

Before video games, kids learned to swim during summer vacation in a local waterway or "swimming hole," or at summer camp. Today, drowning is the second-leading cause of death for children between 1 and 19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The largest groups within that population, reports AAP, are toddlers and teenage boys. The importance of learning to swim seems to have become a major safety concern for children; swim lessons can address that need.

Basic Safety

Water is present even in areas without waterways: home pools, retention ponds and unsealed wells are just a few hazards present everywhere. Hot summer days draw children to municipal pools and waterfronts, many supervised only by an older sibling. As more children come from single-parent or two working-parent families, less adult supervision puts children who have little experience with water at risk where even the amount of water in a bathtub or backyard spa is concerned. The AAP stresses that even children with advanced swimming skills need adult supervision and that although readiness can vary from child to child, swim lessons for toddlers beginning at 1 year of age can be an important part of "overall protection" of children around water.

How Lessons Work

Swim lessons address safety issues in a structured manner, teaching children first to be unafraid of water and get their faces wet, then to float and breathe properly in a way that self-education cannot teach. The repetition used in organized swim lessons triggers the same neurological result again and again and resulting in learning, according to the Broward County Drowning Prevention Task Force. The process is especially effective for small children.

Progressive Skills

The use of movement along with explanations and demonstrations by the teacher reinforces learning the movement. A progressive program of skills such as that used by the Red Cross Learn to Swim Program builds simple skills, one upon the other until the child is able to put together breathing and movement into a swim stroke. Simple strokes like the dog paddle and elementary backstroke give way to the more powerful and efficient breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle stroke. By building from simple to complex and using repetition, swim lessons educate while minimizing stress.

Considerations

As the number of backyard pools, water parks and municipal pools increases, the fact, reported by USA Swim, that 68.9 percent of African-American children as opposed to 40 percent of white children have low or no ability to swim is particularly troublesome. Rates for drowning are disproportionately high among minority populations, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More accessibility to swimming lessons at YMCA/YWCA facilities and other recreational facilities such as Jewish Community Centers, municipal swimming pools and water parks could help prevent drowning disparities.