I thought it was about time we updated this one since there are a lot more resources out there now…
I have written about teaching babies to swim and you can find those articles here:
- How to Teach Your Baby to Swim
- Teach Your Baby to Swim – Part 1
- Teach Your Baby to Swim – Part 2
- Swimming for Physical Development
The benefits for teaching your baby to swim are obvious:
- Safety – with drowning being one of the main causes of death in children, it makes sense to teach them to be water smart.
- Physical Health – swimming is a great cardiovascular workout promoting heart and lung health, improving strength and flexibility, increasing stamina and improving balance and posture. With childhood obesity on the rise, we really need to get our kids active. Additionally, swimming puts less stress on the joints compared to other forms of exercise.
- Emotional Health – believe it or not, swimming is also good for your child’s emotional and mental health. It helps to improve overall mood and reduce depression. It is believed that the natural buoyancy of the water is more relaxing than other types of exercise.
Did you know that children who swim start smarter? According to a study, children who swim not only achieved physical milestones faster but they also “scored significantly better in visual-motor skills such as cutting paper, colouring in and drawing lines and shapes, and many mathematically-related tasks. Their oral expression was also better as well as in the general areas of literacy and numeracy”.
More about the benefits of swimming for infants and toddlers.
Swimming Classes for Infants
See also:
- uSwim – free online swimming lessons with videos and lesson plans to help you teach children of all ages how to swim (not just babies) so you can get started even with an older child.
- How to teach your baby to swim by Douglas Doman
- Teaching Your Baby To Swim: Introduce your child to swimming – an expert guide shown step by step in more than 200 photographs
- How to Teach Your Baby to Swim by Claire Timmermans
Nurture for the Future 