Whether you are a swimming instructor or parent, when it comes to teaching infants and toddlers to swim–PLEASE choose your approach carefully.   It is absolutely imperative that you really research the pros and cons of the teaching method before enrolling in an infant swimming program, especially one that may promise drown-proofing or mastering survival skills.  These approaches can be extremely dangerous and even life-threatening.  Simply put, your baby’s (or student’s) life and emotional well-being is in YOUR hands.

Teaching an infant or toddler to swim can be done successfully in a naturally progressive, child-centered learning environment.   One that is gentle and kind.  It is my professional opinion that this is the ONLY method any responsible person should consider for a baby.   We certainly want children to learn to swim for safety, but there is no iron-clad, guaranteed defense against drowning.  There is no such thing as drown-proofing.

In fact, the Broward County Drowning Prevention Task Force in Florida published a program called Water Smart Babies.  They created the program to help educate parents on how to best protect their children and keep them safer around the water.  Water Smart Babies stresses that the parent is the most important factor  and encourages parents to Follow the Safer 3, a layered approach to drowning prevention.

To keep infants and toddlers safer, parents should be taught to take every precaution when the child is in or around the water.  Never let your guard down no matter how many lessons a toddler has taken or how many times they have shown the ability to swim.  To keep children safer, we must combine learn-to-swim with as many layers of protection as possible, from touch supervision, to lifejackets, to fences, to self-closing gates, and pool alarms.

But you ask:  What about those infant-survival skills that  I’ve seen on YouTube?  I believe former NDPA Executive Director Kim Burgess hit the nail on the head in the position statement for the Broward County Drowning Prevention Task Force, “The water-survival skills program make compelling videos for the internet, but no scientific study has yet demonstrated these classes are effective.”

The report also concludes that these types of programs place inexperienced swimmers in what he perceives as life or death situations.”  If practiced repeatedly this places a child in a chronic stressful situation of “saving his life” every time he swims, which could detrimental to the child’s emotional and cognitive development.

Karen King, also referenced in the report, states:  “Putting babies in life or death scenarios is not an acceptable teaching practice in swimming or any learning situation. It’s like showing a child a busy street, putting him IN the road, and watching to see if he makes it to the curb.”  Do you see the cruelty and absurdity in this?

The bottom line is that the ultimate goal of teaching infant, toddlers and young children to swim is so that they love their swimming experience and learn to be safer in the water in the process.   Like any other worthwhile skills, skill mastery is a process–not an event.  Don’t be fooled!

Here is a short video example of what the Swim Lessons University “Parent & Tot” learn to swim program looks like.

Give a child a lifetime gift–teach a child to swim using a gentle, loving approach.   An approach that has proven effective for not only my own three boys, but for the thousands and thousands of students who have safely learned to swim with a Swim Lessons University certified instructor.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has named Jim Reiser the recipient of the 2015 Virginia Hunt Newman Award for his curriculum and approach in teaching infants, toddlers, and children to swim.  Jim is the first American to win the award in 10 years.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University certification program and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com  We have training and certification programs designed for both private instructors as well as organizations like YMCAs, Recreation Departments, Athletic Clubs, and more.

Swim Lessons University is currently being utilized by recreation departments, YMCAs, America Camp Association swim lessons programs, as well as by private swimming instructors in 45 states and over 30 countries!

You can also call us toll free at 1-866-498-SWIM (7946).

According to the American Institute of Preventative Medicine, DROWNING is the leading cause of accidental death of children age 5 & under, and 2^nd only to automobile accidents to children age 6-14.  The number of children we lose every year to drowning is very troubling.  Especially when we know that in most cases–drowning is preventable.  One problem is that too many parents have the mindset that it can’t happen to them.

There are TWO REASONS for that:

• Parents naturally OVERESTIMATE their child’s swimming ability.
• Parents UNDERESTIMATE how quickly and quietly a child drowns.

While most people think that there would be water thrashing and a real struggle before someone drowns, that’s not how drowning looks or sounds at all.  It’s not like in the movies, children drown without a sound.  If a child can’t swim and doesn’t grab the wall, what would happen?  Like any other drowning victim, would have one goal:  Try to breathe.  What would he breathe if his face was submerged?  Water.  So you would hear nothing.  And in far too many cases, the toddler breathes in water, slips underwater, and within as little as 90 seconds he is unconscious.   In as little as 2 minutes, even with the best resuscitation efforts, the outcome is not good, i.e., a parents worst nightmare, brain damage, even death.

For more information on drowning prevention, water safety, and learning to swim, contact Jim Reiser at Swim Lessons University.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has named Jim Reiser the recipient of the 2015 Virginia Hunt Newman Award for his curriculum and approach in teaching infants, toddlers, and children to swim.  Jim is the first American to win the award in 10 years.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University certification program and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com  We have training and certification programs designed for both private instructors as well as organizations like YMCAs, Recreation Departments, Athletic Clubs, and more.

Swim Lessons University is currently being utilized by recreation departments, YMCAs, America Camp Association swim lessons programs, as well as by private swimming instructors in 45 states and over 30 countries!

You can also call us toll free at 1-866-498-SWIM (7946).

WIS New Anchor Dawndy Mercer Plank interviews Jim Reiser, The Swim Professor, about swimming lessons for infant and toddlers.
wistv.com – Columbia, South Carolina |

* please note that the video taken is not a Swim Lessons University or Swim Lessons Company program. It is random footage that WIS pulled to use as a visual.

Dear Swim Professor,

I am teaching a class in my hometown with kids 15 months to 2 years.  I am having some difficulty with the back float.  Lots of squirming and crying.  I did the resting head on shoulder and singing songs.  Do you have any other suggestions, if you do please let me know.  Thanks.

Maddie M.

Dear Maddie,

The most important advice I can offer you to share with your parents is, “Don’t force it.”   It is very common for children at this age not to like being on their backs, and while they are capable and skill ready, the children may not be “mentally ready.”    It is my opinion that learning to swim should be a loving, enjoyable experience, and infants and toddlers should not be forced to do skills against their will.

When I am teaching an infant-toddler swimming class I stress to the parents, if your child is communicating to you that he/she is not happy, respect that.  In this case, sit the child up.   By keeping a child focused approach, your young students will learn to love swimming lessons and develop a life long love of the water.  By forcing back floating or any skill on a happy child, you will only prolong the process of learning the skill, and in many cases, set yourself up for failure.  Why?  Because by forcing a skill on a child, the child will only learn to DISLIKE the process of learning to swim instead of loving it, which is what we should ALL WANT:)

In our Parent & Tot 101 DVD, I tell a true story about my son Jeb.   When he was two, he seemed to hate being on his back.    However, my approach in the Swim Lessons University Parent & Me course is to spend a designated amount of time on back floating/kicking every lesson and the back kicking activity is in every lesson plan.   So like it or not, I come back to each skill every lesson BUT I never “make” the child do it against his/her will.  So every time Jeb would fuss, I would simply sit him back up and continue singing and loving and teaching.   So one lesson, still age two, we were on the front kicking exercise with the noodle.  Jeb was now kicking around the pool independently (of course I would follow him around and keep my eyes on his face to make sure he wasn’t taking in water at any time).  At any rate, he is kicking around the pool on his front and then suddenly, out of the blue, without any direction or instruction from me, he flips himself over on his back and starts kicking everywhere on this back!  He’s been kicking happily on his back ever since.  In fact, just last night, he won an 8 & under backstroke race, LOL!

So essentially, he had been “skill-ready” even when he didn’t want to do it, he just wasn’t mentally ready to try the skill until that day.  Parents and teachers should not get caught up in their own goals or be overly task oriented, but rather keep learning fun, and the skills will fall into place with the right environment.  Don’t think you are doing them a favor because back floating is some magical lifesaving skill.   Children should love the water first, and drowning prevention is a layered approach.  In my opinion, no child should ever be in a situation where they have to save themselves.   There should be multiple layers of protection that prevent a child from ever getting into a life threatening situation.

I hope this helps, and keep up your enthusiastic work!  You are a special teacher and your students are lucky to have you!

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has named Jim Reiser the recipient of the 2015 Virginia Hunt Newman Award for his curriculum and approach in teaching infants, toddlers, and children to swim.  Jim was the first American to win the award in 10 years.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University certification program and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com 

We have training and certification programs designed for both private instructors as well as organizations like YMCAs, Recreation Departments, Athletic Clubs, and more.

Swim Lessons University is currently being utilized by recreation departments, YMCAs, America Camp Association swim lessons programs, as well as by private swimming instructors in 45 states and over 30 countries!

You can also call us toll free at 1-866-498-SWIM (7946).

Should you start your baby (under the age of 2) in swimming lessons? Swim lessons for infants? Swim lessons for toddlers? In my opinion, that really just depends on two things:
1. It depends on whether or not the experience will be a positive one.
2. It depends on whether or not you have reasonable expectations.

If you can answer yes to those two questions, baby swim lessons can be a wonderful experience for your baby. If your instructor takes a child centered approach, if the water is warm (87-94 degrees), if you are looking develop prerequisite skills to swimming and have realistic baby swimming goals, then you are on your way to having a great time and a beautiful bonding experience with your baby.

Toddlers as young as 19 – 24 months can learn some real swimming skills, even lifesaving skills, but no infant or toddler should ever be expected to save his own life. Parents must use a layered approach to drowning prevention and see to it that their infant or toddler never has to save him/herself from drowning. If they do, the parent has failed the child.

My advice to parents looking for opinions on these so-called infant aquatic survival techniques is quite straightforward: Pick up your baby and run the other direction! Stay far away from instructors and programs who’s one and only goal is survival swimming. Instructors who force skills on babies before they are ready are putting their lives at risk in the lesson itself. Would you like to see what this approach can look like? Check out the video clips on linked up in a fantastic blog by Katrina Ramser Parrish called Infant Aquatic Survival Techniques. Personally, I had to turn the video off because it was so sad. It literally had me in tears. I can’t imagine any parent thinking this is okay. I want to publicly thank Katrina for her excellent work in communicating what this approach can look like.

As a parent of three young boys myself (Rex, 3 months, Nolan, 2 years, and Jeb, now 7 years), I know that what I want for my children. Nothing is more important to me than my boys knowing that I love them. Nothing is more important to me than my boys knowing that I will protect them. Nothing is more important to me than the safety of my children. But you will never in a million years see my children in that environment. Innocent children are being put at risk by their own parents, because they are being led to believe that their baby can be drown-proofed.

At Swim Lessons University, we train instructors to teach infants and toddlers to swim through a child focused approach. Swim lessons for infants and swim lessons for toddlers can be of great value. Infants and toddlers can learn to swim in a setting that is positive and joyful. You can watch video samples of young toddlers (including my own) doing some very amazing things in our classes as well, but as a result of a completely different approach. An approach that puts the child first . . . an approach that makes learning enjoyable . . . an approach that shows our children that we love them.