Swim lessons

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Not a bad idea.

I took her to the theater the other day for the first time ever to see "Brave". She had never been to a movie in the theater before. About 15 minutes in I noticed she squirming and fussing with her ears so I asked her what she was up to. She says, "The movies is too loud so I'm putting in ear plugs." And sure enough she has ear plugs in her hands so I ask her where they came from and she says, "I brought them in case the movie was too loud. I took them from your bed room and stuck them in my shoe before we left. And I was right! The movie is way too loud!"

I'm still wondering how she thought the movie might be too loud when she has never set foot in a movie theater before.

Yep, sounds a lot like our experience at the moment. We have decided that he is going to swimming lessons and he is going to learn how to swim, not negotiable. The teacher knows about his AS and so is very patient and swimming lessons for all children is very common in Australia. It is going very slowly, and although I don't usually take him, my husband tells me that he zones out and has very awkward body posture and hates having the water on his face. We feel like he will make progress and do really well for a few weeks and then it will be school holidays and suddenly everything we've achieved has been forgotten.
We tried other sorts of sporting activities (way back when, before DX) and that was a waste of time - he wasn't interested. He still can't ride a bike and has absolutely no interest in learning (he is 5 and a half). It's not that I have any illusions of him being a sporty kid, I could care less but I just wish he would expand his interests - if his face isn't stuck behind a screen then he is interested. Australia is a very sports obsessed nation too, it's considered 'weird' not to follow any sports at all and I would hate people have another excuse to pick on him.

Yep shellfish... that sounds like my daughter. She'll play with some blocks and puzzles too, but mostly wants my kindle or tv.

We had also wanted her to be in sports as well because, not to put too fine a point on it she is going to be very tall and have a very muscular build. She could be quite athletic if she wants to be and had the inherent skill, we will probably give it a break and try again in a year or two on some of the other things one might spark an interest in her you never know. But yeah, the swim lessons are kind of non negotiable for us too, we LOVE the water swimming, fishing the kids need to have the skill.

My daughter can ride with training wheels. I don't anticipate removing them anytime soon, I did not learn to ride a bike until this year myself.

Somewhere here there's a thread I started about teaching a kid on the spectrum to ride a bike....let me see...here it is http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp2953418.html#2953418

I am both an ex swimming instructor, I have AS myself, and my Son shows a few traits of it, though nothing majorly disabling at this point.

I had trouble, however, with his swimming lessons. First, let me note - that not all swimming instructors are all that great at it! Being an ex-swimming instructor and swimmer, I found it v difficult watching the other instructors teach my Son when I knew I could do way better than that. I chose to put him in classes, however, because I thought it was important to get him to work with other kids, too.

My Son hardly responded at all. Always distracted, splashing, mucking around, not listening, and doing a very poor effort with this swimming.

I decided to take him out of the classes, and teach him myself after all. It may not occur as regularly (sooo much to do all the time), but he does very well with it.

I agree with some previous posters

- It is a VERY noisy environment in a swimming centre!! Whenever I walk into one, it's almost like my whole brain freezes and I am completely overwhelmed by the noise, the water and aaaall the other visual stimuli as well as people!
- This can make it hard for your daughter to hear the instructor clearly, and to stay focussed on her
- When people talk to me in a noisy environment, I literally can barely understand what they are saying, it's very frustrating
- Many instructors just explain what you're meant to do, then just act as a traffic cop, directing the kids when to swim without any individual attention at all.
- One on one teaching means that the teacher will ensure that the child is/has listened, and will correct her stroke while she is swimming.
- Maybe she needs an aspie instructor, who speaks her language? (not sure how easy that would be to find!). One small example, is that I would NEVER allow my kids (when I was teaching) to splash around and muck around while I was talking, and if I could see they were zoning out, I would get their attention back. I guess for me, if I am not looking at something, i am not paying attention (trouble with multitasking), so if I see others not looking, I presume they are not paying attention either. I think many NTs are able to both muck around AND still pay attention, so perhaps an NT instructor wouldn't be phased by this so much.
- Other sensory issues may be at play too, like the temperature of the water, or the sun glaring in through the window/off the water
- As for coordination, I am not sure about that with your daughter. I became a very good swimmer and I can see my Son will be quite good also. I think it takes the right teacher, to be honest. One that has been a swimmer, and one who really analyses the strokes and how to teach it. Although I am a good swimmer, however, I still have my aspie difficulties with it. For example, I struggle to do freestyle kick also, particularly when I am using my arms as well. I still have won many medals, but it was mainly my arms that got me there! lol I was also MUCH better at breastroke, so maybe your daughter will be also?
- Oh, and my Son also had lots of difficulties with water in his face. Step by step though, and he is ok. Take it at her pace but with her knowing that she will need to do it eventually. Find a fun way to do it can help also. Other than that, the older she gets, the easier it might be for her.

Hope some of that helps

I actually think swimming lessons isn't a bad idea. It's more of an individual kind of thing, and it's a good skill to learn just in case.

She'll find something she's interested in eventually, but right now she may be too young to know what sport she really likes.

I gave up on swimming lessons. There was too much watching other kids have a turn and not enough having a go yourself for my DD, who went to lessons from 4 months (with me!) till she was about 7 without managing to swim more than about a metre, doggy paddle. The final straw came when, due to one of the local pools being refurbished, the classes got even busier and both my daughters ended up in the same class (I told them not to do this!). DD had a sneaky go at drowning her little sister when she thought no-one was looking **gulp**. Worse, the little sister appeared to be getting WORSE at swimming, not better!

Instead, my mum took them both for a stress-free kickabout in the pool once a week after school. It was less stress, cheaper, and within 6 months DD was doggy-paddling 25m lengths and the little sister dog-paddling about 10m. It's quieter, as they go in the main pool while the noisy lessons are in the teaching pool, and there are no overheated stressed mums in the changing room when they finish. Now, neither of them has great style when swimming, but both are becoming competent. DD is beginning to formalise her style, it's more of a breast stroke and she's having a go at backstroke. She would never put her face in the water in lessons at all, but she even tries to swim underwater in a non-lesson situation. The little one is beginning to try to breast stroke rather than doggy paddle and has had a go at something approximating a backstroke. And they like it again! And they measure their progress against themselves rather than the other kids.

I always felt that sports would help her co-ordination. I have her doing ballet, gym and tae-kwondo. She's not brilliant but she couldn't care less (she thinks she's fantastic at all of them - and she has age-appropriate badges etc). I find that if she is struggling to learn a move, watching a video clip on You Tube is more helpful to her than listening to the teacher. So I take notes, and then we look it up.

She's 9 now and also really enjoys indoor rock climbing, ski-ing (which she's not bad at), and her all-time favourite activity, cycling, which i think she's pretty hot at even though it took her a long time to ditch her stabilisers. So I'd say keep having a go if she enjoys it. It doesn't matter if she's not as good as the others. My DD is very robotic and often not doing quite the right thing in ballet. She does usually take up a 'strategic' position at the rear during shows but she's learning to live with that!

Nx

I am not a parent, but I had some issues with swimming lessons when I was a child, as well. I did learn how to swim and I actually do enjoy it now, but don't have much chance to do it.

For me, one of the issues was logistical - I had very long hair and my biological mother insisted on making me wear one of those swimming caps and getting all my hair secured underneath it was annoying and time-consuming. Plus all of the clothes-changing and so on.

Another issue I had was the way I was being taught to swim. I always had instructors who placed great importance on doing this the "proper way", which meant being told put certain fingers in the water first and breathe on certain counts and in certain positions so on. I didn't understand why a lot of that was necassery. I just wanted to swim.

The biggest issue I had was being pushed constantly. I was terrified of going in the deep part of the pool or going too far under and I always being forced to do these things, to get me "used to it."

Maybe the OPs child has some similiar issues.

The swim lessons are pretty laid back and play based. It is a basic class for 3-5 year olds and the focus really is just learning to float, putting the face in the water and kicking. She's on her third round through.