Learning how to swim at a young age is encouraged for everyone in your family. For one, swimming is a fun activity that your kids will surely love.
Summertime is perfect for your child’s swimming lessons. Being in the pool when temperatures soar feels refreshing, as the water helps cool down the body. It’s also during summer swims that you get to bond as a family. With schools closed, you can make plans to treat your kids to an out-of-town trip or stay overnight or for a couple of days in a private resort.
Summer vacations are when your children get to practice their swimming skills and, perhaps, learn new techniques like breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke, or sidestroke. All the time that your children spend in the pool can build up their confidence as swimmers.
How Swimming Affects a Child’s Brain and Body
Of course, there’s more to swimming than allowing your child to have an enjoyable summer vacation. Swimming is a life skill that can be beneficial for the health and safety of your little one, including infants or toddlers in your family.
In fact, giving your baby some pool time as early as in his/her fourth month is much better than delaying it to give them a feel of the water. At this age, infants are less resistant to floating in the water, which is one way to get rid of any negative feeling that they may have about swimming. The activity offers tremendous benefits for your kid’s mental and physical development, too.
On the cognitive side, swimming at an early age trains children on how to listen and follow instructions from their swim coach. Their brain goes to work by processing what those directions mean, and then it communicates with their body, which manifests as they start making kicking or paddling movements in the water.
Over time, this kind of communication-and-feedback mechanism enables their brainpower to continually develop—something that can help them immensely in their academic years.
Meanwhile, the physical health of your toddler or infant improves in several ways. Swim time presents opportunities to put your child’s muscles into action, especially those that are needed to keep the head up and arms and legs moving, as well as coordinate the core section with the rest of the body. Internally, the major parts like the heart and lungs get stronger with every swim time.
It Has Some Other Benefits, Too
Last but not least, having swimming skills can help keep your child safe in the water. Cases of drowning are common among young children, and unfortunately, some of these result in death.
Early swimming lessons should help put your mind at ease, knowing that your kid has enough ability to float on his/her back and then swim safely to the surface of the water, the side of the pool, or anywhere they can wait for proper rescue. Indeed, knowing how to swim can be a lifesaver in emergencies.
You can read more about the benefits as well as frequently answered questions on swimming lessons for kids in the featured infographic.
