Alvin the Little Fish

I have taught children of all different ages and abilities to swim. My favorite lesson was with a student named Alvin. I taught Alvin for three years and in those three years he won most improved out of all of my lessons. Alvin has high functioning Autism. He can speak, walk, and move like a normal person, but the things he says are very random and not complete sentences. He is fully capable of understanding what you say to him, but he struggles with expressing his own emotions in return. Doctors had told his mom he would never be able to understand how to swim. They told her that even though he can understand when people talk to him, it would still be too hard to swim.

Alvin was seven years old when he first came to me. He swam vertically and would instantly sink when I let go of him. I had to come up with different ways of saying things to him to help him comprehend the ideas of swimming. It was easier to teach Alvin to swim on his front than his back because he already naturally swam on his front. I would just say “feet up” or “kick the top of the water” and he would understand what I meant. He would also repeat every phrase I said over and over to himself. Something that I noticed with Alvin was that when he was in the shallow end he would walk instead of swim. To help him to learn to swim on his own, I would take him to the deep end where he could not touch. This was definitely a challenge for him, but it is how he learned to swim! After a year of lessons, Alvin was able to swim 25 yards on his own. That is one full length of the pool. Two years later, he was able to swim 200 yards on his front without stopping. It took Alvin a long time to swim those 200 yards, but he could do it, and that was what was most important.

When Alvin first learned to swim on his back, he was petrified. He would scream “NO” at me and lift his head up. He would also position his body like he was sitting in a chair. One day when I told him to swim on his back, I said, “Alvin, look up at the sky and pretend that you are sleeping.” He repeated that phrase over and over again and relaxed for the first time on his back. He was no longer sitting in a chair, his back was straight. I was able to hold his shoulders and tread backwards while he looked up and kicked his feet. He eventually started moving his hands on his own. Instead of doing elementary backstroke, his hands moved in a sculling motion, which was okay because he was propelling himself. I was then able to let go of him and he could swim on his back across the pool by himself.

After I taught Alvin to swim on his front and back confidently, I began to teach him to tread. I took a noodle and put it between his legs like a horse. I told him to stay still and keep his head up while still kicking his feet. I eventually took the noodle away from him and he was able to tread all by himself! We started with treading for only five seconds and we made our way up to two minutes. The only problem was that I had to count down or he would stop. That means that if I wanted him to tread for a minute I would have to count down from sixty. Sometimes he would count with me, but most of the time he would just listen. If I paused too long or stopped at any time, he would stop treading so I had to make sure that I stayed consistent when counting.

I also taught Alvin how to jump in on his own. This was a challenge because he was scared. I first started in the shallow end where he could touch. I took both of his hands in mine and would count to three and then say “jump!” He would just step in and it was more of me pulling him in then him jumping in. He didn’t really understand jumping into a pool. I had practice jumping in place on the pool deck for him to understand it. I would say “jump” to him and show him how to jump. I then held his hands and helped him jump up and down. After he got jumping in place, I took him back to the shallow end and he got it! He held my hands and jumped in. Alvin was soon able to jump into the shallow end without me holding his hands. I continued to move him farther and farther down to where he eventually couldn’t touch. After one year of consistent lessons, Alvin was finally able to jump into the deep end and swim back to the wall without any help.

Once Alvin was able to swim, jump, and tread confidently he was ready to take the “deep end test.” This was the test to determine whether or not a child under eighteen years old could swim in the deep end by his or herself. The test was to start in the shallow end, swim across the pool to the deep end, stop before the wall and tread for one minute, then climb out and jump in.  I told Alvin he could do it and swam next to him while he tried the deep end test for the first time. I had to remind him to not let his feet touch the ground, because that would mean he didn’t pass. After a few attempts, Alvin passed the deep end test consistently! Alvin was officially an independent swimmer and I was proud of him.