A Little Success

In my last post I gave a great tip to help children get in the pool. For this post, I will focus on one of the many awesome kids I taught. When you have taught for four years, you come across a lot of different people. My favorite lessons are the special education private lessons. All together I have taught about fifteen private lessons with all different types of special needs.

The swimmer’s name is Sarah and she was my first private lesson that has special needs. She has Asperger Syndrome which is on the Autism spectrum. Asperger syndrome is when a child has trouble with social interactions. She was a challenge for me because she would scream, cry, and scratch me. There was also a language barrier between us. She spoke Spanish at home and English only when she was in public settings. Based on the fact that she was only five years old, she was not in many public settings and didn’t speak much English.

She enjoyed playing with the squirt toys, so I used that to my advantage. I also made sure to ask her mom what she specifically knew in English so that I could talk with her. Luckily, she knew words like no, yes, sit, stay, please, and a few other simple commands that I might say during a swim lesson. I also taught her English words with demonstration and had her repeat them for instance, scoop, kick, splash, etc. She would also say very random things that didn’t really have to do with anything in particular. She was in her own personal train of thought, and it was hard for me to ride her train and keep up. The biggest challenge though was that her social skills were in need of some growth. For the first six lessons or so, I just walked with her in my arms around the pool as she held a toy. She would cry a lot, but it wasn’t because she didn’t like the water. She actually liked being in the water. I personally think that she just didn’t know what to do with herself in water. She would scratch and pry to get away, but then when I gave her freedom she would come right back to me. So, I was patient and waited for her to show me she was ready in her own way.

One day, Sarah showed me she was ready by starting the lesson without tears. I could see in her small face that she was still not completely convinced about swimming, but she was ready nonetheless. Aside from screaming out of fear and uncertainty, she was a screamer out of joy too. She would let her vocal cords rip through the air and her arms would swing and hit the water with full force. I would give her the squirt toys and she would happily retrieve them. With her, it was hard in the fact that she ALWAYS had to throw the toys, and when I tried to throw them farther she would scream. This was a challenge because she would end up only swimming about five feet or less at a time. I had to be sneaky by letting her throw a toy, and while she was swimming, I would throw a different toy and tell her that we had to get that one too. After being very patient with Sarah and understanding that she can’t always help her actions, Sarah was able to swim by herself 25 yards and after only four months of swim lessons. She is a little success. 

From: google.com