What to Expect

What your child will learn:

Expectations

What your child will learn:

Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) is the safest and ONLY provider of comprehensive swimming and aquatic self-rescue™ instruction. Our method of clinically researched instruction emphasizes developmentally-appropriate skills training to ensure that your child is learning self-rescue skills and developing the competence required to enjoy the water.

Integrated into the skills training of infants and young children is the ISR Parent Education program. This program seeks to enable the parents and caretakers to understand drowning prevention methods and thereby safeguard their child’s aquatic environment. ISR lessons give children the competence and confidence to be aquatic problem solvers.

Children as young as 6 months can participate in ISR lessons. ISR lessons are intensive lessons held 5 days per week for an average of 4-6 weeks.

Infants (6 months- 12 months old) will learn to hold their breath underwater, roll onto their back and float unassisted.

Children (1 year- 6 years old) will learn the following sequence: how to hold their breath underwater; swim with their head down and eyes open; roll onto their back to float, rest, and breathe; and roll back over to resume swimming until they reach the side of the pool and can crawl out or be rescued by an adult.

Since statistics show that 83% of all children who drown are fully clothed at the time, during the final week of lessons, while under the watchful eye of an instructor, each of our students have the opportunity to practice their self-rescue skills in both their summer/fall and winter clothes.

FAQs

Will my child need additional lessons?

Based on our research, we know that refresher lessons are important because children change so much both cognitively and physically during the first 0-5 years of life. It is important that their water survival skills grow with their bodies. Frequency depends on the child's age, growth rate, skill level and confidence level. The goal of refresher lessons is to help your child adjust his/her new body size and weight to his/her existing skill level. Your instructor will work with your child to help fine-tune his or her aquatic experience to assist with building efficiency, which will result in self-confidence. This is especially important if your child has not been able to practice any appropriate aquatic skill between seasons.

I hear you say your priority is survival skills. Will my child learn to actually swim?

Yes. At ISR, we believe that part of survival for a child who can walk is swimming. Children learn the swim-float-swim sequence so that they could get themselves to safety. The difference in our program is that they will learn swimming AND survival skills and how to be an aquatic problem solver.

Why are lessons 5 days per week and for only 10 minutes?

The reason for this is multifaceted. First, repetition and consistency are crucial elements of learning for young children. Research shows that short, more frequent lessons result in higher retention. Second, most children have fairly short attention spans and will not be able to focus on the task for longer and we want to take advantage of the best time for learning. A third reason is that, though the pool temperature is maintained at 78-88 degrees, the temperature is still lower than your child's body temperature. Lessons are work and therefore will also be losing body heat. Instructors check students regularly for temperature fatigue since this is an indicator of physical fatigue.

Do parents have to leave during the lessons?

No. You are truly the best cheerleader your child could have. Your positive support and encouragement are invaluable to creating an effective learning environment for your child.

Download ISR's Family Aquatic Safety List to help protect your family from the hazards of an aquatic environment

Download Safety List

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