A child’s swimming skills start from getting used to the water. Don’t put pressure, the most important thing is your own pace with lifeguard recertification.
he big sister jumps headlong into the deep end and dives, while the little brother takes almost an hour just to get used to the water. Children are individuals: some are afraid to step into the pool, others are natural aquatic beasts.
– In addition to temperament, learning to swim is influenced by how much time the child has been in the water and what kind of example he has received from his parents, says education designer from the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Association.
If the parents have taken their little one to baby swimming and continued from there to family swimming, the child has already had a supportive contact with the water in his first years.
Children usually attend swimming school between the ages of 5 and 7, but you can also learn to swim yourself. The majority of Finnish children also receive swimming lessons at least at some point in the lower grades. A good half of the schools organize swimming at every grade level.
If the child is suspicious of swimming and water in general, it is advisable to start training calmly. Some children can be downright afraid of water. It may be that you have been intimidated by water or have had unpleasant experiences with it. It’s no wonder if, for example, a child who splashed into the shore water from a pier as a child is afraid of going under the surface.
– The important thing is to proceed on the child’s terms and gradually make water familiar. The child can get used to it and try out how it feels when the water touches different parts of the body.
Even the everyday situation of washing hair is a pre-swimming lesson: the child gets used to how it feels when the face gets wet and water goes over the nose. When the child develops confidence in water as an element, the actual learning to swim goes much more relaxed.
In the pool or on the beach, the parent can first let the child just be in the water, move in different ways, feel the water with wide, calm movements. Then it’s time to get completely wet and also go under the surface. Gradually, an adult can guide the child to try floating and sliding.
All learning takes time. That is why it is important that the child has the opportunity to get to the swimming pool or the beach and exercise in peace.
Learning to swim depends a lot on the parents’ example, points out. The model provided by possible older siblings can also inspire the child to learn.
It is of great importance that an adult joins the pool and does and hustles. It is also a safety factor at the same time.
Even for those who are at the beach in the summer, it is good for an adult to accompany a child who cannot swim in the open water so that the child is within reach at all times.
Like friends
When learning many new skills, there is the same dilemma: when things don’t go well the first time, or even the fifth time, the child gets angry and the adult gets impatient easily.
Of course, there are those who like to learn in peace with their mother or father, but often it is easier for a child to accept advice and instructions from a foreign professional than from their own parent.
– If you feel that you can’t get ahead with your own lessons, a swimming school may be right for you. One of the joys of the group is that the child sees a lot of role models from others.
According to lifeguard recertification it is also essential in group teaching that each child can act in his own way.
Others need more time, others have the pace and speed ahead of others.
And swimming school shouldn’t be approached in such a way that the matter is suddenly out of the agenda. Some children learn quickly – another may attend three swimming schools before the hustle and bustle really starts to flow.
Sometimes decisive insights are born when the child gets to repeat the exercises learned at swimming school in his own time and in peace.
Patience is a virtue
For some children, group teaching is suitable, others like to go to the fields with a friend. Someone, on the other hand, wants to hang out safely for a long time with their parent, play with a little seal and a big seal, for example.
Encourages parents to follow the child and what is natural to him. He reminds that if an adult puts too much pressure on exercise, it may backfire. Swimming skills that are meant to be comfortable and useful become stressful and unpleasant.
When a child gets to be in the water regularly and safely, he doesn’t really need to be taught, he learns by himself.
– A child needs space to get used to his own pace in order to get that experience and joy of success. The same applies in any sport. Temperance is a trump card.
