News & Events / Water Safety Starts from Birth

It has been recently reported in the media that according to the Royal Life Saving Society, one in five children leave primary school unable to swim the length of an Olympic Swimming Pool. Unfortunately many parents are not even aware of this assuming swimming lessons is a part of school curriculum when in fact this is sometimes not the case.

The other opportunity lost is the fact infants spend nine months during pregnany becoming familiar with the properties of water however, by the time most traditional lessons are available, most of this familiarisation is lost.

Some people advocate swimming lessons from birth for this reason however, for most parents this is just too radical so Windy Hill Swim School located at Windy Hill Fitness Centre has developed an “Aqua Play” program available for infants from the age of three months. At this age, infants are still familiar enough with water to not be shocked and distressed when fully immersed in water. This enables an experienced teacher to commence delivering basic instruction to develop skills such as breathe control which is where learning to swim starts.

Teacher of infant aquatics and the co-ordinator of Windy Hill Swim School, Donna Papworth finds that teaching infants earlier than at the accepted age of six months, enables faster learning because the child has been ‘conditioned’ to the properties of water from an early age thereby eliminating the barriers to learning that apprehension creates.

Donna outlined, “The objective of Aqua Play is to prepare a child for more structured lessons as a six month old. In Aqua Play they will become comfortable getting their hair and face wet, begin to float on their back and by six months, they may be able to establish movement in the water.”

“From being able to float on their back, an infant from three months with repetition will be able to roll over and reach for the side of the pool (to safety).”

She continues, “It is important to remember that if an infant finds themself in trouble in the water, they will be right next to safety so if through repetition they can instinctively recognise the need to float, roll and reach, then they can secure themselves from drowning”.

Donna went on to outline some of the other important benefits of Aqua Play, “whilst my priority focus is to ensure these little ones don’t drown, they will also develop motor skills from movement, cognitive skills from instruction and the program offers an awesome opportunity for additional socialisation.”

Socialisation for both mother and baby are an important part of Aqua Play as the first class of each month also involves a chat over coffee at a nearby cafe.

Parents of three month old infants interested in more information about Aqua Play can contact the Windy Hill Swim School on 9377 1555.