Guiding Your Toddler in Learning to Swim: Effective Strategies for Parents
If you are interested in getting your 2 to 5-year-old child into toddler swimming lessons, there are a few things you should know in order to help comfort them and gain confidence in water. You may read our article on why your child might be afraid of water. It may be a daunting experience for both you and your child to begin swimming lessons at such a young age, but by introducing your child to the water young, you encourage a love of swimming later in life. Plus, it is a safety measure to make sure your child knows how to swim.
Here are a few simple things to incorporate as you introduce your toddler to a swimming pool.
Making it a habit during bath
Fortunately, your toddler is old enough to know that when they take a bath, water will get on their face. Therefore, they already know how this feels. This is an important first step to achieving successful toddler swimming. When you initially take your toddler to the pool’s edge, be sure you stay with them and keep in constant physical contact with them. Never leave your child unattended because of the risk of drowning if they slip or get too far from the edge of the pool in deep water. You want their pool experience to be fun, not traumatizing.
Bring their favorite toys
Bring some familiar toys from home for them to play with in the pool. This will help to comfort your toddler if they seem to be having a hard time in the water. Encourage them and make sure they know that swimming is fun, but mommy or daddy need to stay close at all times. This will help them become more confident in the water but not too confident that they will attempt to swim without your supervision. This is an important balance that must be established with toddler swimming.
Never leave them alone!
From now on when you and your family take a trip to the beach, a lake, or a water park, you will have greater confidence in your child’s ability to stay afloat. Of course, you should still never leave them unattended. Even older children are at risk for drowning if they are not very strong swimmers. Still, you should never be afraid to expose your child to water as long as the environment is safe enough to do so.
Your experiences with toddler swimming will surely be enjoyable as you see your little one take to the water and have fun in this new, wet environment.