Children’s experiences with water can vary greatly. When choosing the right group, it is good to consider the child’s previous experiences and sensations with water on their face and controlling their breath when putting their face in the water, for example. In the case of timid children, the underlying fear is often due to uncertainty about encountering new things. The parents’ attitude, such as giving an unpleasant or scary image of water, can also affect the child’s behavior in or around water. Below are some concepts used in swimming schools’ entry requirements.

Submersion

When submerging, the child puts their face underwater to pick up an object, for example, from the bottom of the pool while keeping their feet on the pool floor. When the child does this several times in a playful manner, it can be concluded that submersion is natural for them.

Floating

In floating, the child dares to let go of their feet from the bottom and remains floating still. Floating can be done face down with the face in the water or on their back with the face at the water’s surface.

Diving

When diving, the swimmer moves forward underwater without touching the bottom. The position can be either parallel to the surface or angled head downward.

Basic swimming skill

Basic swimming skill is defined as the ability to continuously swim a distance of ten meters. When assessing swimming skills for swimming school, it is good to check the swimming ability of the child before selecting an appropriate group. If a significant amount of time has passed since last participating in swimming school and swimming has not been practiced since, the learned skill may have deteriorated.

How to help a child learn water skills?

We have compiled information on our tips page ‘Helping your child enjoy water’ on how to start teaching water skills to a child and what needs to be taken into account.