Teaching a baby or toddler to swim

Teaching a baby or toddler to swim can be an invaluable experience.

Let’s start by answering three frequently asked questions about swim lessons for infants and toddlers.

1. Can a baby or toddler learn to swim?

Short answer - Yes.

2. Can an infant or toddler learn freestyle or backstroke?

No. A child’s motor skills generally aren’t ready for complex skills like freestyle and backstroke until age 3 ½ or 4 years of age.

3. Can you drown-proof an infant or toddler?

Absolutely not. Even if an infant or toddler has learned basic swimming skills, their performance will be inconsistent. In addition, no baby or toddler should ever be in a situation where they have to save their own life, period. Constant, touch supervision should be provided at all times when an infant or toddler is in or around the water.

Teaching a baby or toddler to swim can be an invaluable experience. Here are some key reasons why:

• Babies and Toddlers can learn to love the water from a young age.
• Babies and Toddlers can learn potentially lifesaving skills.
• Babies and Toddlers can develop the prerequisites of more advanced skills, so that then they are developmentally ready, the skills will come to them almost naturally. In addition, there is significant evidence that baby-swimming enhances social, emotional, mental, and physical development.