Easy and Effective Ways How You Can Teach Your Child To Swim
Nathan Palmer - October 19, 2022As part of our ongoing partnership with Puddleducks, we’ve previously discussed how to teach your baby and toddler to swim. Today, we’ll go over some important advice for teaching your kid to swim. Children between the ages of 2 and 5 are the best candidates for this advise.
Put on Woggles
This shows how we utilize two short woggles to encourage your young child’s independence in the water and assist him or her learn to reach and kick with the legs. Instead of fixed flotation devices like armbands or rubber rings, use two short woggles to help your youngster develop their own independence in the water. Additionally, it helps them move more freely in the water and discover their own buoyancy, which makes it much simpler for them to use their arms and legs.
We really want your child to be using independent flotation devices since children can become overly dependent on fixed floatation, especially armbands. Because they offer the least amount of floatation so that they can move securely in the water, short woggles are great. To ensure that they are balanced front to back, start your youngster with one woggle under each arm, with them positioned halfway along each woggle. To boost your child’s confidence, you can then approach them and lightly tap the woggles with your finger. However, youngsters of this age are actually capable of being entirely independent with just two brief woggles. If your child is more self-assured, you can approach them from the side to assist with their developing leg kick and arm propulsion. Giving your youngster Condominium pool coaching with as much independence as you can is crucial. Using pool toys is a terrific method to encourage your child to reach and it provides them something to aim for, allowing them to become more independent. Once they gain confidence, take out one of the woggles and place the other one over your child’s chest and under each arm.
Your child can support themselves across the chest with a well-developed leg kick, but it takes a bit more effort on their part, which is excellent exercise for them. Additionally, they must learn to better manage their own buoyancy and balance. The single woggle frees up their arms significantly, allowing your youngster to develop a longer, further arm pull to aid with propulsion.
Getting Into The Water
This is a crucial lifesaving skill because, if a child were to fall into water deeper than they can handle, they would be able to remain afloat long enough to cry for help or to make it to shore. It only takes one brief woggle to get started mastering this ability. This is put beneath your child’s arms to encourage them to look up at the sky and turn around and around in the water with their arms and legs. To convey the sense of continuous motion and turning in the water, we often use analogies like riding a bicycle. To assist your child in rotating while also keeping them upright in the water so that their legs are typically pointing straight down toward the bottom of the pool, you as a parent should lightly touch their hips.
It’s crucial that kids learn to maintain their balance in the water since they have a propensity to roll either backwards or forwards. When your youngster gains confidence and learns to spin independently on one woggle, you should take away that woggle because your function will then become much more crucial. Encourage your child to continue rotating and moving in the water while looking up at the sky and using both of their arms and legs. Again, your responsibility as a parent is to support their hips and watch that they aren’t submerging themselves excessively. If they don’t have a woggle, their buoyancy will be considerably reduced, and your child will have to exert more effort to stay above the water.
While you assist your child in keeping their head as much as possible above the water and assist them in remaining upright, encourage them to turn, turn, turn using their arms and legs. Your support may become unnecessary when they gain self-assurance because you won’t need to be as involved anymore. However, we must emphasize that even though your child will be much safer in the water with this skill, they should always be watched in the water.
How to Leave the Swimming Pool
Today, we’d like to discuss two strategies for exiting the pool. Initially utilizing the wall and bar, then adding ladder steps. The goal of climbing out using the wall is to teach your youngster to do so as independently as possible. We advise you to bend your leg underneath your child while using a wall or a bar to make a “step” for them.
They may then independently lift themselves up from this “platform” with just their legs before using their upper body strength to pull themselves out of the water. They should then wait for you to exit the pool next to them before settling down at the pool’s end. You should instruct your child to place both of their feet on the bottom step of the ladder steps after holding onto the railings tightly.
They now have four points of contact on the stairs as a result. To ensure that there are always three points of contact with the ladders, instruct them to walk carefully, one step at a time, and just one section of their body at a time. Even while you should always be around, your child should exercise independence to help them learn and gain confidence. Your youngster should turn around once they are on the poolside and move away from the water so they can see where the water’s edge is. After then, you can leave the water and be with your kid.
Switching in a Pool
For young children, learning to turn is crucial because, if they were to fall into the water, we want their first reaction to be to turn around and kick back to the side until help arrives. Start by supporting your child in the middle of the pool while they face away from you and keep their heads above water. Get your child to turn repeatedly in your direction after that. Turning away from the wall is the logical step after this.
This gives your youngster back control over the situation. You are standing nearby as they begin to hold the pool’s side. After that, exhort your toddler to turn repeatedly away from the wall. Your infant should turn first with their head, then with their shoulder, and last with their arm outstretched. You can assist your child at any of these steps, but you should insist that they hang on to the wall until you say their name and then say, “Ready, push.”
This guarantees that kids learn to push only when instructed. You should progress to more head-down swimming as their confidence grows so that we may introduce sinking rings and objects at the bottom of the pool so that their head goes into the water and their alignment and kicking improve. In addition to being a crucial skill, turning helps kids build confidence because it’s a major step for them to be able to push away from the side of the pool and toward their parents.
Entering the Pool
We want to discuss two basic approaches to bringing your child into the water today. Initially, there is a sitting swivel entry. Parent and child should sit side by side at the edge of the pool to begin this way of entry into the water. You should then stretch over your child, swivel across them, and face them as you enter the water. This will ensure that your child never enters the water alone. Encourage your youngster to enter the water on their own after you have done so. To do this, they must roll onto their front and carefully wriggle into the pool while holding on to the side at all times.
Again, you should be there for protection, but you should always urge your child to have as much independence as you can. Utilizing ladder steps is the other method. This technique should also be used by you so that your child is never in the water alone. Turn to face away from the water, hang on to the hand rails at all times, and show your child how to enter the water as you do it yourself. Next, descend the stairs one step at a time. Stay near to the steps once you’re in the water and urge your kid to enter using the same method as you did. Again, unless your child is struggling, there shouldn’t be a need to grab onto them because you want to promote independence.
Rear Floating
Children should learn how to float on their backs because it boosts their confidence and improves their breathing, which is important for life preservation. For kids, staying motionless in the water is unusual, therefore it can take a lot of practice for them to develop this skill and feel at ease with these fundamental exercises. Start by laying flat and as relaxedly as you can with your child’s head resting on your shoulder and your shoulder just below the water’s surface. As they initially lay in the water, you should support them by placing your hand just below their lower back.
They can lie down in the shape of a starfish or a straight pencil, but it will be difficult for them to maintain their balance and lie motionless when you start to remove your hand from underneath them. Bring them across your body once their confidence begins to increase, placing one hand on their lower back and the other on their head. You should first take your hand out from behind their lower back while encouraging them to maintain their tummy up in order to develop their skills at this stage.
As they grow, you can eventually try lifting your hand out from under their head. But now since they don’t believe they can stay afloat, your child could want to stand up in the water. You should now begin repeatedly practicing this ability with your youngster until they are comfortable floating.
Moving and Holding Along the Pool’s Edge
Your youngster is well on their way to being water safe once they can hold on to the side and make their way to an escape. The most important thing is to teach your child to hang on to the side and move hand-on-hand along the side. Again, always be available to help your child if they need to, but by this age, they should be able to navigate along the pool’s edge securely on their own.
Reverse Swimming
Your child should learn to swim on their back because, once they are comfortable doing so, their airway will be unobstructed in the event that lifesaving techniques are required. This is a technique that takes a lot of patience and practice to master, just like learning to float on their backs. Starting with their head resting on your shoulder, but with a long woggle supporting their lower back, as with the floating skill, have them gently walk backwards while they are floating on the water. Encourage them to kick their legs to make their own motion in the water as their confidence rises. As their confidence returns, take their head off your shoulder and place it in your hands. Their confidence will increase as you repeatedly practice this technique to the point where you can remove support and let them swim independently on their back. On our YouTube channel, you can find more informative advice films like this one.
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