4 Tips for children who fear the water.

  1. Do not feed into the fear. Do not talk about the fear but talk about all positive actions that the child performed in the water. This may be as simple as the child splashed on his/her own or participated in a game. Go home and tell dad, grandma, grandpa, everyone, in order to get the child excited about the next day, and playing that same game.

    This does not mean that the instructor will not talk about the fear with your child. We believe that children are just as good at communicating as adults. Therefore the instructor will talk to the child to fully understand his/her fear and then communicate the purpose of executing certain skills.

  2. Do not feel guilty if your child cries. We appreciate you parents who allow your child to cry. They are expressing emotion the only way that they know how. We can handle your child crying. If we teach them that the skill being performed is fun, they will learn to laugh. It makes it much more difficult if you come and empathize with your child because you are telling them in different ways that, "your right it is scary." Be excited for your child because he/she is going to love the water soon.

  3. Do not expect them to stop crying in one session. Although we would love for your child to love the water immediately, we must first build trust with your child. Being consistent is very important to children of any skill level. Although you think they may be getting bored by the same repetition of skills everyday, they are not. They like to know what is going on and what they can expect.

    By practicing going under water 3–4 times/lesson with the song ring around the rosie, they will start to remember the outcome of the previous days games, which was that they were okay. This will then start letting them know that they will be safe with the instructor.

  4. In most cases it does not get easier as they get older. As your child gets older the fear generally gets stronger and they also become physically stronger. This may take longer to help the child learn to break his/her fears because we can no longer make the child perform a skill. He/she has to choose to perform it.