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Water fears are typically the fear of the unknown, meaning the child just has their imagination to shape a negative perception about swimming. These are easier to work through than a water trauma. A water trauma is caused by the child being in a real-life water experience that in someway felt dangerous and thus brought on a case of lasting emotional fright.

Water trauma is caused accidentally. If your child topples into a pool, it’s an accident. If an inexperienced swim instructor takes your child underwater before they are ready, it’s still an accident. If you show heavy emotion because you are scared for your child in the water, it’s an accident. No one forcefully tries to give a child water trauma, but if they have it, the hard part is it stays with your child for a very, very long time. What can you do to help overcome a water trauma?

• Take a short break before you tackle the issue. Then create a positive swim experience (swimming with a friend and another mom? Backyard party? Ice cream after a short swim?) before you look into lessons.
• Don’t settle for a cookie-cutter, cram-’um-in kind of swim school. Programs that pop up only in summer are great for kids who love water and instructors who do this for college money. I hate to say it, but a lot of trauma can actually happen in these environments.
• Forget the group environment & do private one-on-one lessons. You want to give the instructor every advantage to helping your child build a positive experience in the water.
• Be forthright with your swim lesson history. Don’t exaggerate or downplay the bad experience. Just relay the facts (as opposed to subjective opinions) to the next instructor.
• If something negative does happen, roll with it in a calm, calm, CALM manner. I know a mom that when her 2-year old fell into a pool, she jumped in after her and began playing with her daughter in the pool, as if the accident had all been intended.

For water fears, you can follow the same advice, and implement a plan of education rather than one of healing. Water trauma requires more patience and support on behalf of the parent or instructor –the child needs to be alloted more control in order to make peace with the water.