Swimming for Special Needs Children
Parents should get their children with special needs into swimming classes for many reasons.
Learning how to swim is a survival skill and everyone will at some point in their life be near a swimming pool, beach or any body of water.
Many people with special needs are afraid of the water, while others love the water but are not aware of the possible danger of drowning.
It is important that they take private swimming lessons to overcome this fear which usually affects other areas of everyday life. For example, they tend to have a fear of putting their head under a shower, or taking a bath, or even just getting their face wet.
One of the greatest benefits for these students is once they learn about water safety, their attention to their other senses are heightened. As a result, when they are in the water, other skills such as speech, gross motor skills and fine motor skills can be worked on.
Elias started with us in April 2017. Prior to enrolling with us, he has had swimming lessons elsewhere for over a year. He wasn’t scared of the water when he first joined us but had been fearful to submerge his head under the water.
Coach Eugene was able to understand his conditions and Elias was able to submerge his head within 3 lessons. This was done via a combination of making learning fun in a safe and controlled environment and plenty of positive reinforcement.
For students with special needs, it is important to diagnose and set goals to achieve success in each specific area. At The Swimming Room (TSR), our coaches seeks to understand our students so as to bring out the best in them.
As of today, Elias is currently learning front crawl breathing and looks forward to his weekly sessions with Coach Eugene. It is here at TSR where talent surfaces.