In my 28 years of teaching swim lessons, I have observed that it takes three main things to learn to swim.

1. A willing participant (realizing that wanting to learn does not mean that everything will be comfortable at first.)
2. A supportive and encouraging parent, guardian or coach (the more supportive parties, the better.)
3. A good swim instructor that understands psychology and how to work with and overcome fear.

All three of the above must be present in order to effectively learn to swim and enjoy it. If one or more of the above three things are not present, such as poor instruction or lack of encouragement from parents and other role models, then the learning process may not be effective and in fact may be a negative one, which is unfortunate. Most children are willing to learn to swim as long as their parents or guardian are supportive and will make the effort to take them to swim lessons. Unwilling participants are usually limited to adults who let their OWN FEAR take over, although children can have some fear too. The greater the fear level, the longer it takes to learn to swim because fear must be addressed and worked through in order to be able to learn to swim.

That said, let’s first discuss what you can expect to accomplish with a 4-5 year old with normal physical and cognitive skills, and without excessive fear. My experience tells me that by the time a child reaches the age of 4 ½, he or she has the understanding of language and control of movement to be able to survive in the water and perform the necessary tasks to swim the freestyle stroke a distance of 7 to 10 feet. Within 8 to 10 hours of instruction, a child of 4 ½ years should be able to do the following:

• Wear goggles,
• Kick on top of the water,
• Go under the water and look around,
• Blow bubbles for 4 seconds under water,
• Circle their arms around in the water for freestyle,
• Jump in the pool, either from the side or off a diving board,
• Swim to the side of the pool and get out,
• Pick things up off the bottom of the pool at 3 – 5 feet, and
• Enjoy being in the water.

At 5-6 years old, you can also expect your child to do all the above and also these added skills:

• Side breathe,
• Look back, under and down, and
• Put arm and leg movements together.

Let’s look at what your 18 month – 2 years old child should be able to do after a series of swim lessons.

1. Separate from parents or guardian without crying.
2. Sit alone for 2-3 minutes on step.
3. Stand alone on step.
4. Play with toys on step or in Jacuzzi.
5. Hold onto teacher without crying.
6. Be transferred from one teacher to another teacher or to parent.
7. Hold teacher while kicking legs or while teacher helps child kick legs.
8. Kick legs up and down when teacher says "kick."
9. Fall into water from a step (or side of pool) and go under to be then immediately picked up by teacher, without screaming. This can also be performed from parent to teacher, or teacher to parent. This exercise continues on until the child can swim to the side of the pool on their own.
10. Continue to be happy to see teacher and look forward to seeing teacher.

It is very important to understand that all students experience a learning curve during the teaching process. It is not unusual that after the first or second lesson, that a temporary short-term regression may occur. This is caused partly by the realization that there is work involved to learn a new skill and partly by the awareness that an uncomfortable feeling may occur when one goes under the water. It can seem awkward or unpleasant to the eyes, ears, nose and mouth to go under the water. This occurs at all ages. Even an adult learning a new skill like a flip-turn may feel hesitant to repeat the practice after experiencing water in the sinus area. The adult can reason and convince themselves that this is not something too serious to worry about and will be able to continue the practice with proper instruction. However, the child does not have the life knowledge to understand that getting water in their face will not hurt them and needs encouragement from the teacher and parent that it is ok to do so. The combination of a supportive parent and a good teacher that understands what children can safely do in the water is usually just what a child needs to be able to learn to swim.