He blew us away in the pool.

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J is 10 dx'd AS. He has been having swimming lessons with the same swim teacher for more than 12 months now. At the start of this year we had to change swim centers, J's swim teacher wasn't going to be taking classes at the original swim center but she would be taking classes in the next suburb. We followed her over. J has a fantastic relationship with his teacher, they have been threw alot together. J has all sorts of fears and anxieties some of which involve his fear that sharks are going to get in the (indoor) pool some how, he will often spend his lesson clinging to his teacher (God bless her she is only approx 21) or he will divulge what a bad day he has had or what ever his current fear is. Needless to say not alot of actual swimming gets done.

The swim center staff at the new center have been fantastic, they have gone above and beyond what I could have ever expected- Showing him around allowing him free range to the equipment, making sure the same life gaurd is on duty each lesson, all the key staff he runs into during swim time have made a point of knowing his name saying hello and listening to any weird and wonderful tail he has for them. The actual pool isnt as glamous looking as the last one, but its no where near as stuffy and its quieter, so big pluses there.

Anyway, J has been really struggling with the change to the new pool. His fear of sharks came up again within the first lesson, hence no swimming got done. We tried everything to reasure him no sharks could get in the pool. By the 2nd lesson Bec his wonderful teacher had made up a whole lot of Shark free zone signs and put them in his swim lane- the center management came out to see how it was all going with the signs- as long as those signs are there, there is no mention of sharks, Bec forgot them one week and the shark anxieties were back. J had another lesson yesterday, and he really didnt want to go, he struggles with the physical act of swimming as well as the phobias. By the time I got him ready to jump in the pool the signs were already there but a new fear came up-the fear of being sucked into the grill that runs along side the pool- Bec solved this by first jumping up and down and then running al along the grill to show him how strong it is, she then had one whole section lifted up to show him its only about 20cm deep so he couldn't possibly fit. No more fears- she quickly distracted him then with a game. Things were going pretty good. Then the unbelievable happened. My child whole cant swim very far at all swam a lap, WOW bec went to congratulate him at the end but he turned around and swam another, then another and another he ended up swimming about 5 laps none stop. WOW WOW WOW. To say Bec and I were excited is an understatement. To add to this excitment his 6th lap consisted of J having the perfect body motion for butterfly, he just couldn't get the arms right. He has NEVER tried this before.

I know this is a long post but I just had to share.

Wow!! !!

That's great!

Well done, J, and his teachers. The teachers and the pool staff sound amazing!

My son's being having one-to-one lessons for about 6 weeks now, and this has really encouraged me!

Thanks for sharing, and congrats again to all!

oh wow!

do your happy dance.

This sound so much like my son Samuel. Attached to one teacher, the resistance, the fears. For him it was also a sensory issue, and all the other kids in the pool distracted him. When he finally got used to it, he blossomed. For his 5th birthday, we went to Kealakekua bay in Kona. He figured out how to dive down and look at the fish, and then he did it a few hunder times over the weekend. So much so that one evening he was complaining of a sore stomach. We were worried it was something wrong with an internal organ, and then he fell asleep. For 13 hours! We were starting to get worried about him, but realized that he'd done a few hundred abdominal crunches and was exhausted.

In short - once he gets there, he owns it!

Sounds like you've been blessed with a good teacher.

I love it when kids have break throughs like that! It is the most exciting thing in the world. Enjoy!