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Is Your Child Ready to Start Swimming? Learn the Basics of Submersion

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Group of young swimmers in an indoor swimming pool.

Is Your Child Ready to Start Swimming? Here’s How to Know

Getting started with swimming is an important skill for kids. How do you know if your child is ready to dive into the water? Let’s find out and learn how to make sure they are prepared.

Why Submersion is Important in Preschool Swimming

Learning how to submerge is a key part of our preschool swimming program. It begins early, even in parent-child classes, where we teach kids how to hold their breath before going underwater. It’s not just about diving; it’s about safety and knowing how to handle being underwater.

How to Teach Your Child to Hold Their Breath

A good sign that a child is ready for submersion is when they can close their eyes and mouth before going underwater. We teach this through simple cues. During our classes, and as a fun activity at home, you can use a cup to pour water over your child’s head while saying a cue like “one, two, three, ready steady go.” This helps them learn it’s time to hold their breath because they are going underwater.
Adult teaching a young child to swim in a swimming pool.

Making the Most of Your Child's Natural Reflex

Babies are born with a natural reflex to hold their breath when submerged. This reflex usually lasts until they are six to twelve months old. It’s important to use this time to teach them the cue for submersion, making sure they don’t inhale or swallow too much water, which can be a safety risk.

Getting your child ready for their first submersion is more than just teaching them to dive. It’s about making sure they know how to hold their breath and feel safe in the water. By practicing these techniques at home and in classes, you can help your child be ready for a fun and safe swimming experience.

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You can tell if your child is ready for swimming lessons if they show interest in the water and are comfortable with activities like pouring water over their head. Teaching them to hold their breath and submerge with simple cues like “one, two, three, ready steady go” can also help prepare them for lessons.

The best age to start teaching your child to swim can vary, but many experts recommend starting as early as six months old. At this age, babies have a natural reflex to hold their breath when submerged. Early introduction helps them get comfortable with water, making it easier to learn swimming skills as they grow.

You can teach your child to hold their breath before submersion by using a simple cue system. At home, you can use a cup to pour water over your child’s head while saying “one, two, three, ready steady go.” This helps them learn when to hold their breath, making submersion safer and more predictable.

Safety is crucial when teaching your child to swim. Always supervise them closely and start with shallow water where they can stand. Use simple cues to teach them to hold their breath before submersion, and make sure they are comfortable with each step before moving on. Enrolling in a structured swim program with trained instructors can also ensure a safe learning environment.

Submersion training is important for preschool swimmers because it helps them learn to hold their breath and close their eyes and mouth underwater. This reduces the risk of inhaling or swallowing water, making swimming safer. Early submersion training builds a strong foundation for learning other swimming skills.

Transcript:

00:00
Is your child ready to dive into swimming? Here’s how to tell. Learning how to submerge is a really, really important part of our preschool swimming program.

00:12
It starts all the way back in parent -child. A lot of people think that all we do is to teach them to dive under the water. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s really important to teach children how to hold their breath and get ready for that submersion.

00:27
What we look for is those eyes and that mouth closing as we go down under the water. The way we do that is actually getting that child ready and learning a cue to know I’m ready to go under the water.

00:40
So what we do in our classes and a really good activity you can do at home is getting a cup and pouring it over your child’s head with a cue whether it’s one, two, three, ready steady go.

00:50
What we do is we teach that child it’s time to hold my breath because I’m going under the water. Believe it or not babies are actually born with a reflex that when they are put under the water they naturally hold their breath but that reflex generally goes between six to twelve miles.

01:05
So it’s really important that we utilize this time to teach children that cue of getting ready to go under the water while there’s not a risk of them inhaling or drinking too much water,

01:16
which can be a safety problem for your child. Get those cups, we show you how to do it through this at home, tell you what to look for so you feel empowered and know your child is truly ready for their first submersion under the water.