When to start teaching baby to swim
How To Teach Your Infant To Swim (aged 6-15 months) | Puddle Ducks
hi I'm - pada lux I'm here today with
simply swim and we're here today to show
you how to teach your young child how to
swim we've got some activities here
specifically for children aged between 6
and 15 months learning is a fundamental
activity that we teach our children to
do very young indeed it's really
important to encourage children to
understand that once they've entered the
water or they're in the water their
first instinct is to turn back to the
place that they've just come from this
could be the side of the pool or a pond
if they happen to reform in when we do
our turning activity we encourage
parents to hold their children at arm's
length facing away from them we give a
clear signal turn turn turn and the
parents are watching for which direction
the child naturally wants to turn their
head and then helps them come back round
towards themselves once it's clear which
direction the child wants to turn for
themselves it's surprising how early
young children can learn how to hold
onto the side the way that we teach this
in the fall is to encourage little hands
and arms to rest over the side of the
pool in the very early stages parents
support with the ones with either their
knee or a hand under the seat to give
them some support and we help with their
hands on the side of the pool in the
pool that we're using today besides a
particularly high so we're lifting and
supporting the child but giving them a
sense of supporting themselves on the
side this activity can also lead on to
what we call monkey looking which is
using the little ones hands to help them
move to a point of safety parents can
encourage this by supporting underneath
the child's seat with those knees and
helping with their hands along the side
this pool was not appropriate to
demonstrate that actually
but any pool that has a bar or a deck
level site is an ideal environment to
help your little ones learn to move to a
point of safe exit from the water we
don't recommend the use of fixed
floatation than they teach and children
to spend it's really important that
little ones are able to understand how
to balance and support themselves and
the dynamic environment of the water so
encouraging them to use floats and
waddles is a really important skill for
them to learn so that they can learn to
adjust their position and balance
themselves when using floats it's
important that the parent maintains
their control mainly of the float just
enough support of the child so that
they're secure on the float and safe
safe from rolling off or coming off the
float children can be moved around the
pool and parents can either support from
the side with one arm coming over the
top of the child in a nice secure
position or when children become more
comfortable in supporting themselves
parents can move to the front and that's
a lovely position for the child to be in
because it's a lovely bonding activity
they can see mom or dad in front of them
and it will often encourage with the
ones to help kick their legs too as
they're really keen to get the money
whatever the little harbour position is
a progression from the long waddle in
this position the parent lengthens their
arms and is supporting the child whilst
the child is learning to help to support
themselves over the top of the parents
forearms we use toys to encourage the
child to reach forwards and the child
can also kick their legs parents can
move the child to one side so that the
child's legs are going underneath the
parents arm we recommend that the
parents arms are as low as possible to
the water so that the child is also
feeling their own buoyancy and again
learning to stabilize their position
hands can be opened so that the child
can see clearly in front of them and
focus on toys which will also help them
to learn to reach and gain balance
themselves and
teaching young children to learn to
become comfortable on their backs can be
tricky after about six months of age and
they start to want to sit up and that
reflex is actually carried through to
the pool however it's important that we
keep continue to try to get them to be
comfortable on their backs because being
able to be on their backs is a really
important life preservation technique
it's easier for them to breathe on their
backs than on their fronts the way that
we encourage parents to try and get
their children to become on their backs
is to start in a nice seated position
bring your shoulder up to the child's
head and then over a short period of
time ease the shoulder backwards so that
the child becomes nice and comfortable
laying flat to the surface of the water
parents can use small toys held above
the child's head to provide focus and to
help the children's heads go back so we
encourage our children to use the long
Woggle because it's important that they
learn to support themselves in the water
using armbands is fine it's another
method but with armbands children can
become over aligned so using the long
models means that they're learning to
physically stabilize themselves in the
water and to hold on for themselves
parents are able to support the Woggle
and the child although it's a great idea
to keep your hands as low as possible in
the water so that the child's feeling as
much of their own buoyancy as possible
it's also a great activity to encourage
your child to kick their legs but if
they're not happy to kick themselves you
can even come down to a single hand
supporting the Woggle and use your spare
hand to encourage a leg kick with your
child keep your eye on your child's
mouth because whilst we like the hands
to be as low as possible it's important
that your child is not taking on too
much water
small splashes are absolutely fine but
your child must be able to bring their
mouths away from the water when
necessary
clicking and splashing of fundamentals
of teaching your chance to swim and
they're also great fun teaching your
child to splash encourages them to use
their hands and arms which are the
forerunners for an arm movement in
actually swimming the same goes the
kicking to encouraging children to kick
their legs we've set the tone for
teaching them to use their legs to
propel them in the water later on using
songs and rhymes is what we do to help
children have a great time last airline
you need really important skills thanks
very much for watching the video I
really hope that you found it useful for
more advice videos feel free to check
out the simply swim YouTube channel and
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