Swimming "lessons"

Post Reply New Topic

My son has loved the water since he was a baby. We didn't live near public pools until he was 4, though he did have some opportunities to swim in preschool before that.
In California, there is this pool in a creek . We took Pop there but mostly just waded, my husband would carry him around and stuff.
Last summer we took him to the city pools here in town and he started dog paddling. I had a hard time getting him to paddle "to me" and couldn't figure out how to encourage to swim further. Finally, one day I swam away from him in a "race". He swam the length of the pool.
This summer (we have been going to the pool already, for a month or so) we have been working on paddling. I told him we need to work on going underwater. He said he needed goggles. He's been saying this for a while. I didn't know what goggles had to do with holding one's breath. Anyhow, I bought a pair as part of his "graduation" from first grade.

He was so excited. He immediately put his head in the water. The second time he swam with his head in the water and today he "dove" into the water, underwater swimming. He blew bubbles on his own. He's so happy.

I tell this story because this is really an alternative build up to swimming lessons. My husband was a water baby and took well to swimming lessons. I didn't. I built a fear of lessons, I don't know if I had a fear of water before that. My dad used to force me into the water and lord the lessons over my head. I took lessons from a lady when I was 4 and had panic attacks. Later when I was 6, I tried again but chickened out. I eventually eased into the regular pool by Pop's age, 7 1/2 on my own. I taught myself how to "swim" but never properly learned strokes.

I think some children just learn differently and I'm so happy we were able to get Pop to this level of water competency without any traumas.

I think part of whether or not children fear the water is up to their parents. My grandparents would never put their heads under the water, and whilst my mum is not afraid of water, she fears putting her head under the water. My mum taught me to not fear putting my head under the water and I am a really good swimmer and loved lessons. I think introducing children to water and swimming gradually and not forcing them is the best way.

my parents didn't pay much attention to me in anything. father tried to spend some time teaching me, but i always loved water anyway. i did the dog paddling a lot in the beginning, then started swimming under water. then i watched some unknown mother teaching her son to swim on his back. he could not do that. i tried to do as she told him and it worked. (you see, it's good to take things literally.) in our local swimming pool, there were posters with the descriptions on how to swim. i was reading them and following the instructions. now, i still love swimming and i am good at it.

i always felt very good swimming, but now i live in country where a declaration from a doctor is required to enter a swimming pool, then one has to be evaluated by the people there to be allowed to swim. it's so stupid and i tried it once, but every year i needed to ask this declaration again, so i just gave up.

I am 43 and I am not "afraid" to put my head underwater...it hurts to do so,so I dont.I cant stand the water in my eyes and have always had a hard time synchronizing my breathing(when trying to play clarinet as well) and end up with water up my noise,which also burns.I also have some what of an alergic reaction to clorine.I can handle it for a few days and then break out in a rash.It sucks because I actually love the way my body feels in the water and learned how to do breast stroke,side and back strokes without getting water in my eyes.

I think it is great that your son likes swimming.It is good excercise and can be a life long activity.Dont the other splashing,screaming kids bother him?It use to drive me nuts being splashed and held under water(which other kids knew and made a habit of doing).The goggles are a great idea,wish I had them when I was young.

My son has taken swim lessons for about a year or less and he loves it and loves being in the water. He's still not confident enough to be in the water without a life jacket/vest though except at swim lessons. We went to the lake this past weekend and there is a sandbar in the middle of the lake and my son could touch the bottom and he still wanted his life vest on. I'm wondering how long it will be before he doesn't need that anymore.

My 5yo dd has been taking "swim lessons" through her preschool program. I'm so pleased because the other night in the bath tub she showed me over and over how she can put her head underwater.
I'm going to register for swim lessons at the Y over the summer. We live in FL and swimming is a neccessity. I hope that she gets good enough to join the swim team at the Y one day, it seems like it would be a good way to have her participate in sports, at this point sports like soccer might be a little too much going on at once.

AT the city pools, that's completely not allowed. Horseplay is quelled and even punished. Interesting too, are the doting parents with their kids. There are parents who even play with their older kids. All types too, some parents look like they just broke out of jail and there they are, so gentle with these little kids.
Back in California it was a big problem, adults would leave their kids unattended and there was tons of splashing, horseplay, etc. The lifeguards there had to double as babysitters. It was really confusing for my son and he'd have meltdowns and tantrums.

My son now loves the water and is a "competent" swimmer, although definately not the best.

When he was 5, we brought him to a Y program. We watched him for a year cling to either the side of the pool or the instructor. It just did not work out and eventually he did not want to go anymore.

When he was 7, my mom put him in lessons one summer he was spending with her. They threw him out of the class everyday for not listening.

At 10 he did not too bad, and having done a lot of swimming during public swims, actually graduated from the level and went to the next one. He failed it by a thin margin and was devistated, refused to try again. He is now a "deep end swimmer" though partly from the lessons, partly just from playing around.

I know a LFA boy who is a great swimmer. Never took a lesson but the lifegaurds trust him as a deep end swimmer at his home pool. It is frustrating for his family though because if they go to a different pool he cannot "pass the deep end test" because he won't follow the instructions.

My son also needs goggles to put his head under water. I think it has nothing to do with holding your breath and everything to do with not wanting to get water in your eyes! My son is very sensitive to the chlorine, but even in a shower refuses to get water in his eyes!

Earthcalling, your son sounds like me. The fear is a chicken egg argument too. I don't remember fearing water but I definitely feared lessons. Sounds like your son was traumatized like I was.
We didn't have a "test" for the deep end. But my friend from the Midwest says they had a formalized test and so you had to know strokes and treading and hold your breath for a specified time.

I couldn't STAND swimming lessons and yet I was on the swim team in high school. Truth be told though, I still have a fear of water. I don't like being on our boat or our jet ski in the middle of the ocean - the idea of something happening out there is really a big phobia of mine that I'm trying to overcome.

My son LOVES water. We had a tough time when he was a baby and would take baths because he would want to dunk his own head under the water. He had some sort of instinct about holding his breath while being under - he's done it since he was about 3 months old. (and no, I'm not kidding.)

Luckally for my son, the "test" at any pool in out city is just being able to swim two side lengths of the pool (across it, not a length) without stopping

I was forced to take swimming lessons at a YMCA as a kid and hated them. This was before I was diagnosed though. They made a big deal out of the "deep end" and drove it into the ground so much it instilled a patholigal fear in me. So whenever they took us the the deep end I threw a tantrum. They never once could get me to jump in and if they tried it would turn into a power struggle and then I would have a violent meltdown.

Later my mom still obsessed that I needed to learn to swim even though we didn't have a pool or live anywhere near water forced me to take them again. This time as a program for Autistic kids. I hated them to because some of the instructers used the fact that I was "high functing" to call me things such as "defiant" and call me names to my face because I feared jumping in and she couldn't get me to do it for nothing. My mom did call up and complain. I think she got asigned to a lower functing kid who couldn't tell on her if she called her names and I got asigned to a nicer lady and no I never did jump in.

I generally avoid the deep ends of pools for a variety of reasons. Some of the things that bother me about them are: lights, I have allways hated pool lights; drains, no I don't think I'm going to get sucked down into them, I just thinl they are creepy; grass/weeds apearing to be growing in a crack at the bottom of the pool; and finally when I was a kid taking swimming lessons the pool generator was struck by lightning one night and so the water int he pool was not circulating. As a temporary fix some sort of pump was placed with hoses running down into the deep end of the pool held to the bottom with a brick. This absolutely terrified me. I don't knwo if these experiances are unique to me, I only suggest you keep an open mind and concider that there may be some truely oddball sounding things that may make an Aspie child uncomfortable in a pool and while the reasons may sound silly to you, they may be very serious to the child.

Another point I havent seen mentioned about kids and swim lessons is....cold water.I took lessons in the early morning and the water was painfully cold to me.If your kid is thin it can be pretty bad.Late afternoon appointments might give the water time to warm up a bit if this is a problem for them.CAPD can also be a problem if the intructor is yelling out intructions and there are a lot of kids screaming in the background.

I just want to say I think its cool you parents are letting your AS kids have swimming lessons. I suspect for many AS kids water can be scary just from the overstimulation from water sensations and noise, etc. I don't think one should force the child, but if they want to swim then support them.

Myself I was the subject of much bullying as a young child and my 16 yr old cousin thought it would be fun to hold me underwater when I was 4 yrs old. I was held under till I lost consciousness and was left to laying on the bottom of the pool. A teenage girl who was a complete stranger got me off the bottom and resuscitated me. Ever since I was terrified of water. I was 12 years old before I was able to tolerate taking a shower instead of a bath as I didn't like water going over my head. In highschool we were forced to take swimming. I didn't know how to swim and I was the only one they could never teach. I would freak out when put in deeper water and could not float. I also have total lack of coordination so I'd say that didn't help. Plus the teacher screaming at me didn't help.

At age 37 I finally got in the water again in a physical therapy pool. Course its not overly deep, but I am a short woman so at the 4'10 level I can't reach the bottom of the pool with my feet. My physical therapist is very kind and gently guided me out to the deep end over a period of many months. This is a major accomplishment for both of us. Swimming is a good exercise and eases pressure on the joints so I think its sad that other people ruined it for me as a kid and it took 20 years to even learn how to tread water or float.

Be understanding of your AS kids feelings about water. It can be scary. Encouragement is ok. But having some evil swim instructor bellowing at the top of their lungs that you're a sissy, coward and quiter won't help an AS child learn to swim. Neither will having punks splash water in their face. Gentle encouragement and protecting them from would be pool bullies is the best thing.