Thought I’d do a play on the infamous book title today, What To Expect When You’re Expecting. Did you catch that? Only I’m referring to the fact we’re in the middle of summer and your children might have been taking swim lessons for some time now. How are they doing? Have they made progress? How can you tell they are on track to swimming success and/or safety? Let’s break it down by disecting the very LEAST of what parents should be seeing at certain ages:
- 0-4 years of age: Face in the Water. Infants and children should be at the very least putting their face fully in the water or doing what’s called an underwater submersion, either voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary means when asked, the child will put their face underwater. Involuntary means giving the cue 1~2~3! and taking the child and yourself below the surface, holding their breath. Babies cannot resist this command (and hold their breath automatically), but if you’ve got a stubborn 4-year old, the age is still young enough for the instructor to try it involuntary style a few times, despite tears and resistance. Then continue to dump water over the head, in the pool and at home in the bathtub.
- 5-6 years of age: Basic Safety Swimming Skills. This includes floating face down very still-like (no thrashing, no grabbing), gliding gently out to the instructor (no thrashing, no grabbing), the ability to stand up on own after a face down float without help (no thrashing, no grabbing), and using arms and legs to go forward (no thrashing, no grabbing) — I’m trying to make a point here that thrashing is not swimming, and a comfortable face down float (ah-ha! I don’t sink!) comes before any movement. Also bobbing (ie. “hopping” to the pool’s edge if water is over the head for safety), and hopefully turning over on one’s back to float face up, if help is needed. And basic pool rules, like no running or swimming by yourself, or no grabbing.
- 7-years of age and up: Advance Safety & Introduction to Strokes and Proper Kicks. When I get kids this age, I do a quick assessment making sure they can perform the above tasks. Then I make sure they can tread water in the deep end for about :30 seconds and swim 25 yards any style (or length of any pool). I don’t take any ability for granted unless I see it performed with my own eyes. Then I start with the 3 major kicks (flutter, frog, dolphin) and match those kicks with the 4 major strokes (freestyle, breast, back stroke, and butterfly). Diving, underwater swimming, and safety skills that require advanced thinking, such as how to detect a distressed swimmer and what to do, follow.
So what’s the very MOST children can be doing at this age? Well, the possibilities are endless. I have 3-year olds coming up for air unassisted. Always remember, however, that just because your child can swim doesn’t make them drown-proof or water safe.
There are exceptions to the above bullets, such as if you have a 5-year old who has water trauma, which is defined as not a perceived fear of the water but a fear that resulted in a bad experience. But that 5-year old needs to work on face in the water.
Most importantly, I have also exposed here the major stages of swimming: Face in Water; Floating; Actual Swimming; Strokes. Regardless of age, you child in located somewhere in one of them, so you can see what they will be learning next.
