We’ve all seen babies do it. Grasping is a natural reflex for them – they’re born with it.
They grasp everything – fingers, toys, clothing, hair, jewelry – holding on so tightly that you sometimes have to peel their fingers away to get out of their grasp.
This is important in swimming lessons. It’s important to encourage babies to maintain their grasp reflex and encourage a strong grip so that they build strength and independence. It also teaches babies to support their own body weight (minus the effect of buoyancy on their weight) in the water.
Building strength provides babies with a giant leap toward learning swimming skills – enabling them to eventually hold on to the side and ultimately climb out of the pool at the appropriate time. This strength is also a huge benefit in their general physical development.
Read on for three progressive activities that are based on the ability to grip.
Teaching Grip
To start gripping fingers, simply encourage the baby to grasp and hold onto the adults’ fingers. With the baby facing the adult, eye contact is easy to establish and maintain. At first, adults can help the baby by clasping the babies’ hand between their thumb and forefinger. As the baby’s grip get tighter, the adult can stop “helping” and let the baby grip on his/her own.
Of course, the adult should be ready to help again if the baby lets go.
It’s best that the baby already experience going underwater before teaching grip fingers in the pool since the next step in this learning progression is to bounce the baby gently up and down in the water.
Holding onto the Wall
The stronger the baby gets the more adults can encourage holding onto the pool’s side. Begin by supporting the baby’s bottom with the knee or hand. Once the baby grips the wall, they can be allowed to hold on to it on their own (with adult spotting). Of course, it’s also best to condition babies for going underwater prior to teaching this activity since there is the chance that they may submerge if they let go of the wall. Anything you can do to help them stay calm will make this learning experience a better one.
Monkey on the Wall
As babies progress in strength building and master holding onto the wall, they can learn a monkey skill along the wall. This is an important safety skill where the child learns to move along the wall placing hand-over-hand to reach a destination. Of course, this is a necessary skill for exiting the pool at a stair or ledge, for instance.
In the initial stages parents will need to assist these hand movements. Toys placed conveniently at short intervals may be useful to encourage children to move along. As children grow they will master this skill on their own. Parents must always stay in attendance and supervise them at all times. Remember drowning is a silent killer, supervision within arm’s reach is mandatory.
With any of these skills, it is important for the adult to watch the child’s body language for sign of discomfort or stress and immediately stop the activity.
While grasping comes naturally, don’t assume that turning that into a grip happens as naturally. Use the above teaching activities to ensure that babies are learning the skills that will help them become confident and safe in the water and prepared for learning future skills.
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