How Young Is Too Young For Swim Lessons?

By John Voket

Newtown resident Tim Bartlett believes a national association of pediatricians was right when its members agreed that their standards for children’s swimming lessons had them starting way too late. As the executive director of the Bridgeport YMCA, he has seen hundreds of situations where familiarizing even the youngest children with being in the water, and eventually teaching them to swim, enhances that potentially life saving and lifelong skill.

The nation’s largest pediatricians group recently announced it is relaxing its stance against swimming lessons for children younger than 4. In the past, the American Academy of Pediatrics has said swim classes might give toddlers and parents a false sense of security.

Now the group says it is fine to enroll children as young as 1.

A few small studies suggest toddlers may be less likely to drown if they have had swim lessons. And the doctors are not recommending lessons for every young child.

Some parents may also feel their little ones are not ready — and that is ok, Mr Bartlett agreed, saying that familiarizing young children with the water should be a family decision.

“Since the YMCA as an organization was the originator of group swimming lessons in the early 1900s, I don’t think 1-year-olds are too young to start; our Mommy and Me classes have moms and their babies together in the water when the children are as young as a few months,” Mr Bartlett said.

According to the report in Pediatrics, parents should choose classes that emphasize water safety and require a parent or other adult to be in the water with the child, said Connie Harvey who heads aquatics development for the American Red Cross and was not involved in the doctors’ policy update.

And classes should have at least one instructor for every ten students, she said.

“At the Y, we generally keep children under direct parent contact in the pool up to age 3,” Mr Bartlett said. “Then kids generally begin lessons and swimming on their own with the parents nearby.”

Mr Bartlett said, however, that younger children with an affinity for the water can be considered for the earliest stage of organized swim lessons “as soon as their feet can reach, and they can stand on the floor of the pool.”

He said the Y has a highly developed system of teaching and testing the skills of swimmers of all ages to determine the level at which they will be taught. And if at the end of a certain program, if individuals have not met the criteria for graduating upward in the hierarchy, they simply repeat the lesson stage they are at until they can advance.

“For some it takes awhile to master the skills,” Mr Bartlett said. “But getting them over their first fears of water, and to help them feel comfortable eventually leads to them building an important and lifelong skill.”

The updated policy, released online recently by the journal Pediatrics, also recommends fences around all pools, even popular inflatable ones. Kids can drown by leaning over the soft sides and falling in.

And the group warns that children can drown when their hair or hands get sucked into the drains of pools or spas without drain covers or proper filter-pump equipment.

The rate of childhood drowning deaths has declined in recent years. About 1,100 US children drowned in 2006. Parents know they should be vigilant while children swim, but trouble can occur in an instant of inattention, said Dr Jeffrey Weiss of Phoenix Children’s Hospital and lead author of the policy.

“It’s not a lack of supervision, it’s a lapse of supervision,” Dr Weiss said.

Mr Bartlett concurred, saying in his experience, almost all drownings are preventable.

“We live on the coast, and there are so many pools and beaches, but even the best swimmers can get into trouble, so supervision and maintaining the proper safety measures is as important a part of prevention as helping kids as young as possible learn how to swim,” Mr Bartlett said. “And the YMCA as an organization is there for parents who want to see their children learn as young as possible.”