Every year thousands of drowned children die. The best way to avoid this is by teaching them to swim from a young age. Babies can begin to lose their fear of water through matronation. Mother (or father) and son dive into the pool and do simple exercises and games together.
But what happens when the baby grows up? How to teach your kid to swim and move through the water without the help of parents? Here are some tricks.
7 steps to teach a child to swim
1. Losing fear. The first thing you have to achieve is that the child loses his fear of the guide. The sooner your child becomes familiar with water, the better. You can start from 3 months.
If the baby’s first contact with water is with his parents, he will feel confident and secure and will lose his fear. From 6 months, babies begin to lose the reflexes to the water with which they are born. So it is recommended that your first contact with the pool is before.
2. Start where it doesn’t cover. When the child is older, you should make sure that your child starts in an area where he stands. This will offer you security. One of the main problems for children when learning to swim is the fear of sinking. If you know you can put your feet up, fear will go away.
3. Teach him to bubble in the tub. To teach him how to breathe correctly, it is best to rehearse in the tub first. Ask him to take air in through his nose and try to make bubbles in the water, expelling the air through his mouth. You don’t need to put your head underwater yet. For him, it will be a game, but he will be practising the first breath to learn to swim.
4. Teach him to put his head in the water. Once you have had fun with the bubble game, it’s time to go one step further. Ask that when making the bubbles, but the face in the water. A second will suffice. The first time you will be surprised, but seeing that the bubbles keep coming out and nothing happens, you will lose your fear.
Then try to put your whole head in the water using the same game. If you get scared by the rise of the bubbles through your nose, ask him to try with his head looking to the side.
5. Teach him to move his legs. To help your child learn to move his legs, hold his hand across his belly and help him stay horizontal, perpendicular to the pool floor. Children tend to sink their legs and body at first.
6. Breathing and legs at the same time. Now you must coordinate the two previous exercises, one of the bubbles and the movement of legs. Hold him by the armpits and ask him to bubble while moving his legs. You are helping him.
7. Let me try it alone. When you already have confidence in yourself and are practising bubbles and leg movement, release it for a few seconds to realize that you can do it alone. You will not learn in a minute. Not in a day. You have to be patient, but with the help of these exercises and daily practice, the child will learn to swim.
