When parents are looking to get their children into swimming lessons, they are preoccupied with preventing drowning and water safety in general. Although these are great things to be focused on, you will be surprised to hear how much swimming lessons can improve your child’s overall development at a young age.
Developmental Milestones
Griffith University researchers looked heavily into how swim lessons can impact baby growth physically, psychologically, and cognitively. They surveyed 7,000 parents and closely observed 176 children (birth to five years old) who regularly attended swim classes for three years. One of the most noteworthy results of this study was that children in swim lessons from an early age are, on average, seven months ahead on motor skill developmental milestones than the normal population. In turn, children are more advanced in balance, coordination, using utensils, drawing, and building with blocks.
Cognitive Development
The same Griffith University study revealed that cognition significantly improves in young children who are active in swim classes. The study determined that swimming helps the cognitive aspect of child development, advancing it as much as 10 months ahead of the normal population. This means parents can expect babies and young kids who are involved in swim classes to reach reasoning levels in areas like reading, writing, and arithmetic significantly ahead of their peers. This can set the stage for a life of academic success.
Language Skills
Swimming lessons can be essential for your child’s language learning. Think about this, what is said during a swimming lesson? There is counting, commands, directions, colors (“swim to the red ring”), etc. It is proven that children can count to 10 upwards of 2 years ahead of their peers just from swimming lessons. Your child’s language development can be advanced by years from simply taking a swimming lesson a week.
Social/Emotional
Not only is it essential to strive for cognitive success, but every parent wants their child to be socially adept. Starting swimming lessons early gives your child continuous interaction with other adults and children. If your child is taking private lessons, this allows you to have them interact with someone new and establishes listening skills to other adults. Group lessons do the same, with the addition of other children with whom they can interact and eventually make friends. It has been proven that children are a year or more ahead of their peers socially from taking swimming lessons.
As you can see, water safety is just one piece in the swimming puzzle. So many factors can dramatically advance your child’s development by simply attending a swim lesson every week.
For more information on the Griffith University study mentioned above, check out this video:
