[blindkid] swimming lessons

Fri Jun 4 10:49:55 UTC 2010

Thank you!

________________________________
From: Carol Castellano <blindchildren at verizon.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tue, June 1, 2010 6:09:58 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] swimming lessons

Kathy--and all interested,

Go onto the nfb website, www.nfb.org, and search the word 
"swimming."  Several terrific articles that have appeared in our 
magazines will come up.  These are not necessarily articles on how to 
teach kids to swim, but I think you will enjoy and be inspired by them.

Carol

Carol Castellano, President
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.nopbc.org

At 01:07 PM 6/1/2010, you wrote:
>Kathy,
>
>When you say "lessons", is this a class or private instruction?
>
>We started Kendra (who also has no vision at all) quite young, first
>attempting classes. We stopped after the first class because despite
>early discussions with them, they were clueless in conveying the
>concept and we could see it was going to go nowhere. They started with
>telling kids to "blow out the candle" by having them hold up a finger
>in the water and then blowing at it. Not the most intuitive concept
>for a blind child of 3 or 4, and it sort of went downhill from there...
>
>Fortunately, soon after that, we found a private instructor (not
>inexpensive) who works one-on-one with all sorts of special needs
>kids. That she works with a variety of kids had given her an array of
>concepts to work with and she is VERY patient. The main adaptation has
>(obviously) been to describe and often physically demonstrate or
>gently manipulate Kendra to get the concepts. I have no doubt that her
>progress has been a good deal slower than her sighted counterparts
>would have been in many cases. While Kendra tends to stay right with
>(or often ahead of) her peers in academic areas, in this case, some
>things are harder for her to master-- it is the age old problem of a
>lack of incidental learning through observation as much as anything
>else-- she has, after all, never WATCHED anyone else swim...
>
>This has not, however, stopped her from becoming quite a good swimmer.
>She's not afraid to jump into a pool or even off a diving board or
>platform once she's comfortable she knows where the water is, and
>we're talking about water that is deep enough that she cannot touch
>the bottom of the pool. Her biggest ongoing issue is swimming
>straight. She (like most of us) naturally pulls harder with her
>dominant arm than the other and with no visual reference and very
>little else to guide her, it is a real effort to try and keep her
>going straight in a lane, but then our goal is not to have an olympic
>swimmer here, it is for her to have the experience of the motion and
>to enjoy herself as well as to know that if she falls into a lake or a
>pool, she can safely swim to the edge or get on her back and float.
>Where so many kids get their motion from running around, for our
>daughter, much of her motion is from swimming and also jumping in a
>trampoline. She may do that for as much as 30 minutes or an hour on
>most days-- sometimes more.
>
>Interestingly, while Kendra is rather sound sensitive-- afraid of many
>machine sounds or even applause, and avoids things like auditoriums &
>crowd noises, the fact that most of her lessons have been in an large
>indoor pool with TONS of noise seems to have no effect on her-- she
>likes the swimming so much that she ignores the loud sounds more than
>in any other situation by far. We've had Kendra in quite a few
>things-- yoga, gymnastics classes, music classes, years of dance
>classes, etc., but swimming has been far and away a favorite among her
>activities.
>
>One other things she really likes a lot is yoga and we have had great
>success with that too, but also in much the same circumstance--
>private instruction with a patient instructor often with detailed
>demonstration by an instructor who doesn't  mind a little girl feeling
>her arms, legs, and even body (a recent distraction as the instructor
>is now pregnant, LOL)., as she demonstrates things and then there
>sometimes needs to be some gentle manipulation of the student by the
>teacher as well to get into position, especially when learning
>something new. With both yoga and swimming, as you go further along,
>you have more concepts for a foundation and there seems to be less
>"hands-on" needed and more referring to earlier concepts-- "This is
>like Downward Dog, except..." or "remember how the back stroke feels?,
>well start with that and then..."
>
>Again, the key is going to be a relationship with the instructor which
>allows your child to understand how to move in and around the water.
>No matter if this is private or group teaching, there needs to me a
>way for Addison to know how to move her arms and legs the right way
>and what her body position ought to be. As there are often other
>instructors working in the same pool during our lessons with other
>(sighted) kids, I know it is not that unusual to have a good deal of
>"hands on" teaching in the water to begin with, but the things that
>would generally move more quickly to "now, watch how I do this" simply
>have to be described when possible or physically demonstrated in an
>appropriate way when it is not possible to simply describe.
>
>A well-meaning family member, when he first learned of Kendra's
>blindness commented early-on how sad he was over all the things that
>Kendra would never get to do. One of those things was actually jumping
>into a pool and swimming. He didn't know any better, nor did we I
>guess at that time. Now we (and he) have learned that Kendra is just a
>kid who can do whatever she wants with a few adaptations here and there.
>
>Sorry for the long response. If you have any more detailed questions,
>please feel free to contact me off list as well so I won't overwhelm
>everyone with this discussion!
>
>Richard
>
>
>
>On May 31, 2010, at 1:58 PM, Kathy B wrote:
>
>>Hi All-
>>
>>My daughter Addison is four and is starting swimming lessons
>>tomorrow.  She's totally blind.  Do any of you have any advice or
>>suggestions that would help with her or the instructor?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Kathy
>>
>>
>>
>>
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