The benefits of Water Babies Swimming Lessons
There can be so many benefits to swimming splashing and gliding in water, even if babies aren’t walking. Being in the water engages your baby’s body in a way that can’t be replicated outside of the water. Billions of new neurons will begin firing with every lesson, stroke and splash.
However Horst Miehe of Swimgym believes that you don’t want to wait too long to introduce your baby to the pool. Children who don’t get into it until later tend to be a little more fearful in the water.
Here’s the lowdown on what the Horst Miehe led Swimgym Waterbabies lessons can do for your baby.
Swimming may improve cognitive functioning
Being active and in particular across the hemispheres of your child’s brain can help your baby’s brain grow. Cross-patterning movements build neurons throughout the brain. This facilitates communication, feedback, and modulation from one side of the brain to another. Down the road, Horst believes this active development may improve reading, language development, learning skills and special awareness.
Those thoughts are backed up by a Griffith University 4 year study of more than 7,000 children that suggested children who swim have advances in physical and mental development when compared to their peers who don’t swim. Specifically, the 3- to 5-year-olds who swam were up to 11 months ahead of the normal population in verbal skills, six months ahead in math skills, and two months ahead in literacy skills. They were also 17 months ahead in story recall and 20 months ahead in understanding directions.
However, the study’s findings were only an association and not firm evidence. The study was also sponsored by the swim school industry and relied on parental reports.
Swim time may reduce the risk of drowning
Swim time may reduce the risk of drowning in children over 1 year old. There is a greater correlation to safety in over 4 year olds who have had lessons. Our lessons work towards 2 key water safety outcomes (beyond the swimming benefits) and they are awareness – getting cued into the water, and being able to get yourself to the side if you do fall in.
However even if your child has had swim lessons, they should still be supervised at all times while in the water.
Swimming may improve confidence
Most infant classes include elements like water play, songs, and skin-to-skin contact with parents or caregivers. Children interact with one another and the instructor and begin to learn to function in groups. These elements, plus the fun of learning a new skill, may boost your baby’s self-esteem, helping them to better adapt to new situations and have more self-confidence.
Increases quality time between caregivers and babies
Even if you have more than one child, swim time that involves a parent in the water promotes one-on-one bonding. During a lesson, it’s just you and your little one focused on each other, so it’s a wonderful way to spend quality time alone together.
Builds Babies Motors
Swim time helps promote important muscle development and control in babies at a young age. Little ones will need to develop the muscles needed to hold their heads up, move their arms and legs, and work their core in coordination with the rest of their body.
Swimming is also great for cardiovascular health and will help strengthen your little one’s heart, lungs, brain, and blood vessels.
Along with building muscle, time in the pool can help your baby improve their coordination and balance. It’s not easy learning to move those little arms and legs together. Even small coordinated movements represent big leaps in your baby’s development.
Some studies suggest that swimming lessons may even help improve the behaviour of children as they grow. It may be that they’re trained to listen to an adult instructor before getting in the water and prompted to follow instructions.
Improves sleeping patterns and appetite
As we mentioned before, pool time takes a lot of energy for babies. They’re in a new environment, using their bodies in completely new ways, and they’re working extra hard to stay warm.
All of that extra activity uses up a lot of energy, so you may notice that your little one is sleepier after a swim lesson. You may have to schedule in time for a nap after time in the pool or move up bedtimes on the days that swim time is in your routine.
There’s nothing like a day in the pool or at the beach to make you leave hungry, and babies are no different. All of that physical exertion in the water, as well as the energy it takes their little bodies to stay warm, burns a lot of calories. You’ll probably notice an increase in your baby’s appetite after regular swimming time.
Safety tips
Newborns and infants should never be left alone around any body of water (bathtubs or pools or even buckets). It’s important to keep in mind that a child can drown in just 10cm of water.
For children under 4 years of age, it’s best to do “touch supervision.” That means that an adult should be within reach at all times.
So our Director of Coaching believes:-
As long as you’re taking all the necessary precautions and giving your baby your undivided attention, swim time can be perfectly safe.
Another benefit to infant swimming is that it’s a wonderful parent-child bonding experience. In our hectic, fast-paced world, slowing down to simply enjoy an experience together is rare.
Swim time with our babies brings us into the present moment while teaching them important life skills.
