by Christy Tanner

Created on: January 29, 2009

The school of thought on the age children should begin swim lessons is quite varied. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a statement in October of 2004 disclosing the opinion that children should not begin swim lessons before their fourth birthday. The AAP's primary points of contention remain that children under the age of four do not retain skills they learn during swim lessons and that parents who enroll their children in swim lessons develop a false sense of security regarding their children around water and are less likely to keep a watchful eye on them in situations around pools and other bodies of water.

The United States Swim School Association (USSSA) has come a long way in its efforts to dispel the incorrect findings of the AAP. The USSSA is a community of swim schools and water safety professionals around the country who are committed to water safety education. Together with the Swim for Life Foundation and the Safer 3 program, the USSSA has made great strides in the swim lesson community including the propulsion of the Safer 3 message into many communities.

Safer 3 aims to teach parents and children to have Safer Water, Safer Kids, and Safer Response. Parents with pools are responsible for keeping self closing and self latching gates around pool areas as well as locks on the inside of the home leading out to the pool that cannot be opened by small children. Safer Kids requires children to take ongoing water safety courses that address proper behavior around water including survival techniques. It also puts the burden on parents and caregivers to always be within arms reach of their children when around large bodies of water and to be aware of the present dangers. To comply with Safer Response, preparation for a water accident must be in place; parents of young children need to be trained in CPR and rescue breathing in the event of an emergency.

When parents, children, and swim schools acknowledge the importance of the Safer 3 message, swim lessons can be entered into at a young age and with enormous benefits. Children as young as 3 months can begin learning water survival techniques in the Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) program ( http://www.infantswim.com/ ). This highly intense program teaches babies to roll to their backs when submerged in water in order to safely get a breath; the results are amazing but may be too aggressive for some hesitant parents. Other swim schools begin Parent & Tot swim lessons at 6 to 12 months of age

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