What would you have wanted your swim instructor to know....

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...about ASDs and how to teach you, when you were a child learning to swim? (IF you were, of course).

I am about to run a workshop for swimming instructors who work in mainstream swimming schools on what to know about teaching kids with an ASD. I have all my own notes, of course, but was wondering if there was anything else I may have overlooked.

I am a swimming instructor myself, and have been for years, plus I have Asperger's.

Thanks for your help!

I never passed swimming class in school because i couldn't do the kicking motion to move. All the instruction i ever received was to kick my legs up and down in the water and i would move even with my arms stuck on a flotation device so i couldn't do the crawl with my arms (which i could otherwise do satisfactorily). Then i was chastised on why i wasn't moving using only the kicking motion.

With that, i would give more detailed instruction to those students who are having trouble with the swimming motions including "hands on" help if needed.

And give more support rather that derision to those struggling with their swimming lessons.

Let's see, I learned to swim by my parents throwing me into the water, but I nearly drowned....so I guess...."don't throw your kid into the water."

I really never knew it was common for people to have swim instructors to learn. I have always assumed it was something reserved for the rich? Hmm

When I was two or three, I fell in a pool and nearly drowned, consequentially developing a fear of water. This prompted my mother to search for swimming lessons. The following stories are from ages three to four. I was not diagnosed with an ASD, but suspected (and later rejected for being 'too verbal' for a classic diagnosis.)

My first instructor was, in my opinionated hindsight, terrible at her job. I remember her being very harsh and matter-of-fact. Apparently, my mom informed her of my fear of water prior to our lesson, and her response was to push/dunk me under the water without warning to "teach me how to hold my breath." I responded with the largest screaming/flailing meltdown possible. Needless to say, my mom was hunting for a new instructor after that incident.

The second instructor I saw was a night and day comparison to the former. He listened to my mother, took her words into consideration, and actually put them to work. During the first few lessons, I was so reluctant to even get in the water that "typical" lessons weren't entirely possible. Instead of getting frustrated and forcing me to do anything, he was very adaptive and nurturing. I think what sealed the deal was that he took an alternative approach and appealed to my interests. As he was a member of the swim team for the University of Washington (Huskies) and I was obsessed with talking about my dog, he got me to ride on his back and howl like a dog while he swam around/walked in the shallow end. I was so excited about pretending to be a husky that I didn't even care that I was in the water.

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Fast forward, and I'm still scared, and can't swim underwater (haven't mastered holding my breath,) but I can swim. Ironically, I briefly taught beginner swim lessons to children a few years ago (albeit against my will - I was a receptionist at a pool and they gave me a lesson slot.) I tried to always keep in mind the things my old instructor did to make me comfortable.

- Work within the child's means and don't force them to do anything they aren't comfortable with (If they are too scared, think creatively. The lesson may not immediately start with swimming, but being comfortable near water. Playing with water toys, sitting on the edge with them, etc.)
- Try to pick up on special interests and work them into the lesson to help distract from anxiety (howling like a dog, facts about sea creatures, etc.)
- Learn to predict what will 'set them off' and find ways to work around it (getting upset about water up the nose/in the eyes, getting ears wet, etc. can be dealt with by practicing facing it in controlled ways rather than spontaneous occurrences)

I hope some of this helps. I know I wrote a lot, and it may not be specifically applicable, but thinking about how awesome my old instructor was got me excited to write about this.

I LOVED to swim and was accelerated in class. I was so young when I was in class that they had to put a special bench at the bottom of the pool so I could touch. I was energetic and needed lots of reminders. However, I also have difficulties with auditory processing. I still love to hear sounds under water. In a pool buildings sounds tend to echo. Between the talking, splashing, and everything echoing it was sometimes difficult for me to hear instructions. I can't filter sounds. Visual cues (a water-proof stop sign or look at me or listen) would have been great. Visuals catch my attention and I could have seen these from underwater. It may be something you could try with more visual children. I also needed a warning before someone touched me.

Also think about reinforcement. Games, being tickled, loud exclamatory praises, and high fives were not reinforcing to me. I hated these things as they were over-stimulating, especially the ones that had to much erratic movement or sounds. I liked more predictability. For me a better motivator would have been diving (I control my movements) or getting 1 minute to spin under water.

I actually ended up teaching swimming in high school ( I am very high-functioning Asperger's and ADHD) and taught at least one class per session of special needs pre-schoolers for 2 years. We had a blast as I could understand them differently. It worked really well. We also did a lot of obstacle courses to help my students learn to look where they were swimming, solve new problems, and decide what stroke was the best for different situations. We practiced diving and what to do if you fall in a pool so they could learns these routines if they ever needed them. Talking about these situations was not effective for me (I had to actually jump in the pool with my clothes on to learn to take off my shoes if I ever fell in open water) so I figured with my students, talking about it wouldn't help them either. We physically did everything that we possibly could in class. I focused in on safety procedures as well as strokes. For example, I dropped them in the pool (with permission) to mirror what it feels like to fall into a pool and then they swam out of it, etc. I always had more than one teacher with me for safety. It was the best first job!

I never got to learn to swim.

My mother put me in some cheap/free swimming lessons at the pool by my house when I was a kid. I use a noseplug when I swim so water doesn't go up my nose. Within the first few lessons they told me that I couldn't use it so I had to drop out. I hate having water go up my nose.

If they had just let me use that I could have still learned everything else.

Don't be too hung up on proper form. What's really important is that the kid won't drown.

I never managed to figure out how to do that one where you alternate your arms with your face in the water and turn your head to breathe (front crawl?). Closest I can do is to move both arms in unison while craning my head back so it stays out of the water. (I tend to also move my legs in unison with my arms - I look like a jellyfish while swimming.) For awhile I got really frustrated, repeatedly failing just because I couldn't do that one stroke.

Incidentally, that reminds me, anyone heard of the Infant Swimming Resource? Their goal is to teach babies and toddlers enough swimming skills that they can save themselves from drowning - 6-12 month olds just learn to float, and 12 month and over learn to alternate between floating to breathe and doggy-paddling with their face in the water.

Anyway, one of their testimonials is about an autistic kid who wasn't progressing in regular swim classes, and managed to learn to swim safely in the ISR course.

I remember going to swimming lessons when I was younger, and I was the only one in my class that passed them too.

<--------Take a wild guess if you're wondering why.

I think the whole "swimming class instructor" stuff is simply a mess for Aspergers, because its a foreign person, with a lot of foreign kids... Because of having a group, as teacher you are forced to have a program, that adds stress again for the Asperger....

I simply had these "swimmhelpers" with air around the upper arms until age 4-5 for the more deeper pools, and then started to imitate the movements of my older sister, that could already swim on her own. When I wanted to swim on my own, my mother and my sister simply walked to me to the entrance area of the public bath, where the water was not as deep, as that it could have gotten above my head (and only got slowly deeper), but only a bit higher then my hips. I already was allowed to play there without swimmhelpers before, so playing with waterball or splashing with the sister or mum and so on. So I didnt need to be afraid, because I could stood there easily and knew that spot, and then we started to practice the arm movement, until it worked and I could swim on my own. I think it took half an hour.

I think the most important part was simply, that I never had the idea of being afraid, because of me being used to the public bath with the "swimmhelpers" and the knowledge, that I simply couldnt be drained at that spot, because of the water only being a bit higher then my hips, so if you are not afraid but used to playing there you simply know that you cant get drowned there, as long as no other person is forcing that on you. If you only have deeper pools, I would recommend to go to public bath and simply practice in low-water without any fears.

About the perfect form: Years later, when we had swimming in class, I was told by the sports teacher that my leg movement was not correct. Oh, so if I wanted to become an olympic swimmer, I would have needed to relearn that. ^^ My mom, that was raised in france with a family that drove every summer for about three months at the sea, was absolutely satisfied with: Being able to stay safely above water for a long time without wasting strength, knowing about the dangers of water, and being able to move in a certain direction. I think for average swimming like visiting a bath or using a garden pool, this is absolutely ok and I was allowed to use the typical not so deep funpools with that. At sportpools, that were much deeper then me, I was only allowed to swim as long as she was around that pool, reading or swimming herself, until I was about age 9-10.

I just recommend not forcing them to do something they're not comfortable with. If their goal is to just stay afloat and doggy paddle then great! If they want to learn how to back stroke or something then that's great too. But if they show fear in something then draw the line. Stick with what brings the kid confidence.

When I was younger I was forced to swim during a day camp and they were trying to teach us how to dive in and I was sooooooo scared and just kept falling in all weird and I was embarrassed and starting crying. I just wanted to doggy paddle around and have fun. Wish they would've let me do that.

thanks for a reminder analyser, knew had to go google for something.
have never been able to go in water due to severe sensory issues with it,it feels like pain tearing through flesh when it rolls down it,however am unable to feel pain at all in any other circumstances; have cut for many years to try and get some feedback;funny how a bit of water is agony but a blade can go through over and over without noticing.

however,this is something have really been thinking about in the past week due to encouragement from the ld-pysch and SALT of mine, am really interested in going in the water, and woud love more than anything to one day be able to go along with the niece of mine [who is two now] to one of those swim parks in the uk like sandcastle in blackpool.
am looking at getting a full length wet suit [neck to feet,full length arms],do swimming baths allow people to use them with wet suits if the suit is a disability need?
we are not planning on going to proper swimming baths,thats a far away dream,we are going to a hydrotherapy pool,people in the UK shoud be aware of these; many many special schools in the UK rent out the hydrotherapy pool every day as it pays for the up keep;they dont get government funding for it, some of these have fibreoptic lights built into them,waves,disco lights that go all over the ceiling,music in the water etc.


as for the actual question,what about having large water proof laminate symbols to help back up communication with the kids? even in the kids who are fully verbal theres the possibility any of them coud still be the worst at understanding language in that situation due to the sensory overload and echoey accoustics going postal on their auditory processing.

I'd say to remember that meny ASD kids and adults struggle with co-ordanation and/or strength issues, I failed the same level twice and quit to avoid frustration and embarrisment 3 or 4 levels in(not sure what one becouse they switched from numbers to names) I knew the strokes and all that its just that it did not look as good as the other kids I think so I got failed. Of course what maters most is that if the kid ends up overboard they can stay above the water line.

I experienced such enormous sensory overload doing swimming lessons but I could not speak at the time to tell anyone. I had many years of lessons, half in an outdoor unheated pool and half in a heated indoor pool. The unheated pool I could not speak at all, but in the indoor pool I was overwhelmed by the water as well as the noise and trying to pick out the voice of the instructor was impossible.

Sports came very naturally to me. But NEVER swimming. I still can barely swim despite so many lessons. I have the style down, but I have zero endurance. I can swim about 15 metres before its all too much, unbearable sensory input. As soon as my body is in the water I am spending 90% of my energy to stay calm, and if my head is underwater forget it! I am the same even in the bath.

For the years of group lessons that I had, it would have been cheaper and far less traumatizing had I had a far smaller amount of private lessons with someone understanding. Teach me what I need and that's it. Trying to understand the rules to games and group activities we did to break up the lessons just added even more confusion and pressure to my overwhelmed thinking. And waiting for the instructor to focus on each individual just meant longer periods of me sitting in the water silently in meltdown.

In Australia it is very rare not to learn to swim. But learning to be safe in the water should be the focus, and considered enough for some. I am not cut out to enjoy swimming, but I understand it is important to know enough to be safe, but no one has ever accepted this about me. I just want to be safe in the water, so, freestyle, treading water, floating- Really focus on and solidify the important things.

I forgot, maybe everyone has these sensory issues however everone else appeared to not be as affected by them. Barefeet in the lake/river is pretty much a non-starter and the big one, the chlorine in the public pool always made my eyes sting like salt and vineger in a open cut and that was on top of the already unbarible issue of just having wet eyes, I refused to put my head under the water lake or pool, in lessions i'd compromise to do it once for a second and that was it simply so they could check that box off on their paper.

I liked the water, I just perfer to play around in it then to perform in it as thats were the fun is taken away