What Age Should Children Learn to Swim?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 20 percent of accidental drowning deaths are children ages 14 and younger. For children under the age of four, the numbers are even scarier—in 2009 alone, the CDC reports that 30 percent of children ages one to four were the victims of unintentional drowning deaths.

However, those numbers have declined in recent years thanks to increased use of safety measures like pool fencing and swimming lessons. But this last point brings us to a central question among parents and safety experts alike: what is the appropriate age for children to begin swimming lessons?

Groups such as the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics seem to agree that an appropriate age range for children to begin swimming lessons is between one and four years. Because lack of swimming ability is one of the main factors that cause drowning, the CDC recommends formal swimming lessons for children ages one to four.

The AAP has long maintained that children ages four and up learn how to swim, but recently they’ve advised parents to consider swimming lessons for children at or over the age of one. With that said, they also caution parents to weigh such factors such as emotional development and physical ability before enrolling their children in a swimming program.

Other organizations have different standards for when a child should begin learning how to swim. For example, Swim America believes swim lessons should begin between six and nine months, since that is the period in a child’s development when independent motion is possible. At this stage, children don’t learn how to swim but instead learn techniques, such as surfacing when underwater and rolling on their backs, that would prepare them for actual swimming later on.

On the other hand, according to Terri Lees of the Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, children should begin swimming at age four or five but won’t fully develop their swimming abilities until about six or seven years old. She compares swimming progress to a child’s development between crawling and walking—in that sense, her recommendations are in line with many swim programs that suggest that children build their swimming skills gradually.

If your child isn’t at the point yet where swimming lessons are an option, here are a few brief tips from the experts that will help keep your children safe around your swimming pool:

1. Make sure that a responsible adult is around at all times to supervise young children in or around the pool area (or any other body of water).

2. Take a CPR class (assuming that you haven’t done so already) so that you’ll be able to resuscitate a child or any other person who experienced a water-related accident.

3. Install four-sided fencing that is high enough so that children can’t climb it, as well as sturdy enough to not be knocked over. The fence should also be self-closing and self-latching so that children cannot enter easily.

4. Clear the pool area of encumbrances such as pool toys and floats so that a child cannot slip on them accidentally or be tempted to use the pool without adult supervision.

5. Be sure that young children use proper safety equipment—air-filled “water wings” are not a proper substitute for life jackets because they aren’t designed to keep swimmers safe.

For more information about safe swimming pool practices, contact Richards Total Backyard Solutions!