[blindkid] swimming lessons

[Kathy B]

She loves the water and is pretty comfortable in a pool.  My big thing is how to teach her to hold her breath underwater.




________________________________
From: Heather <craney07 at rochester.rr.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Mon, May 31, 2010 10:47:12 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] swimming lessons

Be aware and make the swim instructor aware that reluctance to put her head in the water might be due in part to her ears filling with water and thereby having her hearing and therefore her sense of dirrection severely limited until she learns techniques for trailing a lane marker or the wall.  Also if you will be inside, echoey pool rooms are horribly disorienting and loud, so she might need smaller group lessons or one to one lessons if this becomes a problem for her.  Try to embrace strokes like the doggy paddle or breast stroke where her hands are always in front of her, so that she doesn't run into the wall or a lane marker.  It won't hurt her badly, but if she is just learning in deep water and bumps into something and loses her momentum and starts to sink and panicks it could startle her very badly.  I have seen that in a lot of blind children, who are progressing like pros, then something like that happens and they back slide for a week or two's
 worth of progress.  If she will be using some sort of bubble or floaties, be aware of how they limit her ability to explore with her arms, as feeling constrained might be problematic.  Most people naturally learn how not to get water up their nose or in their eyes where it hurts like hell and can over time do damage, but not being able to see a friend coming up to dunk you in play, or not seeing a splash coming can foil this instinctual reaction, and therefore it is important to watch her reactions and see if something like this is happening before her reaction manifests as fear or anger.  I hope that helps.  I'm sure you will both have a lot of fun.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kathy B" <burgawicki at yahoo.com>
To: <BVI-Parents at yahoogroups.com>; <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2010 1:58 PM
Subject: [blindkid] swimming lessons


> 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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