Pool Safety Includes Kids Knowing How to Swim

As we go through life it is amazing how many people you meet that never learned how to swim. They do not have the skills to save their own child if these parents ever accompany their children to swimming pools or lakes. Teaching children to swim should be mandatory, and is, if you own a pool.
Studies have shown that children who started swimming lessons at ages 2-4 actually learned to swim well at an average age of 5-1/2 years. While younger children may not swim well, they can be taught how to get to the edge of the pool.
Survival swimming is now being taught to children as young as six months. Survival swimming is taught to children who are fully clothed.
If we haven’t scared you enough about child drownings, think about this:
Among children ages 1 to 4 years, most drownings occur in residential swimming pools (Brenner et al. 2001).

Most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time (Present 1987).
For every child who drowns, three receive emergency department care for non-fatal submersion injuries. More than 40% of these children require hospitalization (CDC 2003). Nonfatal incidents can cause brain damage that result in long-term disabilities ranging from memory problems and learning disabilities to the permanent loss of basic functioning (i.e. permanent vegetative state).
Do figures like these shake you up; make you sick to your stomach thinking “what if” about your own children? Find out about learn to swim programs for older children.
Learning how to swim is not the only requirement for swimming pool safety, just a very important one. Proper supervision and having fencing installed around the pool are also needed. Having a phone with you so you don’t have to leave the pool is another good idea.

If these parents ever accompany their children to swimming pools or lakes, they do not have the skills to save their own child. Teaching children to swim should be mandatory, and is, if you own a pool.
Studies have shown that children who started swimming lessons at ages 2-4 actually learned to swim well at an average age of 5-1/2 years. While younger children may not swim well, they can be taught how to get to the edge of the pool. Find out about learn to swim programs for older children.