Swimming Ideas Podcast 008: How a Child Perceives Swimming Lessons

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This week’s podcast is about those pain points where a child might start crying on their first day of swimming lessons. Sometimes a child might cry when starting lessons for a number of reason and we go in detail through the first few obvious and not so obvious ones.

Prior to the Lesson:

New Pool or Location
- Have they ever been to that location before
Prior Expectations
- Have they had swim lessons before?
- Have they been to that pool before?
Lessons full of people their age?
- Are their peers there? Same age?
What have the Parent’s expectations been?
- Have they created any fear points of their own and imparted them to the child?

The Start of the Lesson:

Swim Coordinator calling the child’s name for attendance
Being introduced to their teacher
Entering the Water for the first time
The First activity given to them by the instructor
The First CHALLENGING activity
Implied authority

Remember a few important items:

Children pick up on a the parent’s feelings of apprehension. As a parent,

Remember, parents, keep your goodbyes brief. Lingering my make the whole process more painful for both the child and the parent.

If a parent needs to walk their child in, let them, but do not let them stay. The parent should walk them to the edge, then once the child is engaged or distracted they should back off to outside of a window, or farther away from the edge.

Take a look at these links for some more info:

https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/2013/03/12/what-to-do-if-a-child-is-crying/

https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/2013/06/07/dunking-a-child-thoughts/

If you’re looking for details on what to do once you’ve gotten the child into the lesson, check out our Premium Lesson Plans!

https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/buy-swim-lesson-plans