Benefits of Baby Swimming
Researchers have shown that early swimmers perform better on tests measuring social, academic, motor and personality development, although such results may also be attributed to the overall quality of parenting.
Physiological Benefits of Infant Aquatics
Babies who develop their swimming abilities
- are often more alert for their age
- have better sleeping and eating patterns
- have improved cardiorespiratory function and
- improved general health
Further research claims that the energy a newborn baby wastes on land counteracting the force of gravity can be released in the water and used in 3 ways:
- To develop the body and above all the brain. Newborns are capable of receiving vast amounts of information and they are at their most receptive in the period immediately following birth
- To investigate the environment and acquire different kinds of experiences as they move freely in the 3 dimensional space of water.
- To enable and develop new ‘problem solving’ and ‘task handling’ brain functions.
Muscular development is enhanced as babies can exercise more muscles in a buoyant water environment than on land, where they are restricted by their incapacity to sit or stand up.
Early coordination is facilitated by the transformation of reflex movement into conscious movement in the water.
Overall neurological development is enhanced as water offers babies a heightened multi sensory experience involving touch, hearing, sight and to some extent, even taste and smell.
Psychological Development
Early swimming helps to round out and develop a baby’s personality. Cautious babies learn to accept risk while boisterous babies learn to be more prudent. As babies discover they can propel themselves in the water, their independence and self-confidence increases.
Water offers them an early opportunity to respond to the unexpected.
Toddlers soon delight in their own achievements and quickly develop social and expressive skills as they play in the water.