water safety
how swimming CAN IMPACT children's lives
FACTS
(WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO)
Drowning is the #1 cause of accidental death for children between 1-4 years of age.
Drowning is the #2 leading cause of death in children ages 1-14 years of age.
Participation in year round swimming lessons can reduce the chances of drowning by 88%!
(Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2009)
(SEE MORE ON THIS TOPIC)
Learning to swim will provide skills for life!
Progressing through each step in learning to swim, to learning to compete is incredibly rewarding!
water safety
LINES of defense
Have a backyard pool or hot tub?
Accidents happen. The more we can do to prevent them, and better prepare ourselves and our children to respond to situations will positively impact outcomes.
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Constant supervision. A child's most important defense from drowning is being under the watchful eye of an adult...especially if there's ANY water nearby.
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Physical defenses. Technology has come a long way in in adding safety measures for home pools. Fences, locks, water motion sensors, automatic pool covers are a few key options. Parents, please look into what devices are best suited for your home pool and put them in place! A small investment now can prevent a potential tragedy in the future.
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Remove tempting objects. Kids are attracted to bright objects and toys. When the pool isn't supervised, ensure any toys are not in the pool, and nowhere near the edge. Kids might be intent upon getting ahold of a toy on deck, and end up in the pool uninentionally.
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Talk about family rules. Discuss your rules when around water. Keep your rules short and memorable so kids can retain them. Reward kids when they demonstrate respect and adherence to the rules. It'll show them it's important
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Swimming Skills. They're called accidents for a reason. A child who has been taught how to react when in a distressed situation in the water will impact his/her chances of responding, and possibly saving their own life. At Waves, we instill several aspects of swimming, the most of important of which are awareness and safety!! No amount of lessons will make a young person drown-proof, but being more confident and skilled in and around the water can make a big difference!
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Know CPR. Anyone, teenage years and up, should be trained in CPR. It's a relatively simple way to potentially save a life...including the life of a family member. There are several places to learn. Here's the Red Cross link.
why swimming matters
For Our Children
For All of Us
Statistics on American Academy of Pediatrics
Latest Recommendations
New 2019 Guidelines Classes In its newest water safety guidelines, the AAP recommend children start swimming lessons around age 1 to help decrease risks of drowning. (See AAP Report) (Washington Post Article on New Standards)
Parent-Child and Toddler Swim Classes Recent studies suggest that water survival skills training and swim lessons can help reduce drowning risk for children between ages 1-4. Classes that include both parents and their children also are a good way to introduce good water safety habits and start building swim readiness skills. If your child seems ready, it's a good idea to start lessons now.
Swim Lesson by the Time They're 4....A Must for Most Families! By their 4th birthday, most children are ready for swim lessons. At this age, they usually can learn basic water survival skills such as floating, treading water and getting to an exit point. By age 5 or 6, most children in swim lessons can master the front crawl. If your child hasn't already started in a learn-to-swim program, now is the time!
Statistics on Why Children Must Learn to Swim
Parents and Swim Instructors CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!
Approximately 10 people drown every day in the United States. Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury deaths worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths.(Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))
More than one in five fatal drowning victims are children younger than 14. For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.(Source: CDC)
Drowning is also a silent killer—most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time. (Source: Present P. Child Drowning study)
NOT ONE MORE DROWNING VIDEO: CRISIS IN THE WATER (Why Every Child Needs to Learn Water Safety)
Participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88 percent among children aged one to four years. (Source: Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 2009)
If a parent does not know how to swim, there is only a 13 percent chance that a child in that household will learn how to swim. (Source: National research study by the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis)
Seventy percent of African-American and sixty percent of Hispanic/Latino children cannot swim. (Source: National research study by the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis)