Infant Swim Programs: Are They Dangerous? :

If movement and stimulation are good for babies, it only makes sense that more movement and stimulation -- perhaps facilitated by a trained professional -- is even better for them. Not exactly.

There's no doubt infant swim programs are highly popular (about five to 10 million infants and preschoolers participate in formal instruction), and infant exercise programs are becoming more popular all the time. But the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued warnings about both of them. Why? We'll take a look at swim programs first.

Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury and death in young children, with rates highest among American children ages one to two. Still, the AAP feels strongly enough about the issue of infant swim programs that it has released two policy statements on the subject, the first in 1985 and an update in 2000.

According to the association, children are not developmentally ready for swimming lessons until they're four years old. Although they may be able to perform elementary swimming motions at about 12 months, these motions are more along the lines of a dog paddle than a traditional swimming stroke, or front crawl. And, as with other skills learned before children are developmentally ready, aquatic skills take longer to learn and are limited by the children's neuromuscular capacity. Furthermore, starting early doesn't translate into "a higher level of swimming proficiency compared with those taking lessons at a later age."

In other words, the situation is the same as it is with hurrying other motor skills: Earlier isn't better, and it's certainly not going to help create a future Olympic swimmer. Also, the training itself may have a long-term effect on the child's sense of autonomy (self-sufficiency), as motivation is an essential ingredient in the learning of any skill -- and motivation is not yet in the infant's emotional repertoire.

But there's much more to consider here. Even when the program's intention is to focus on water safety knowledge rather than actual swimming skills (as is the intention of the aquatic programs of the YMCA and the Red Cross), caution is the key. The AAP warns: "When instruction attempts to optimize learning by reducing fear of water, children may unwittingly be encouraged to enter the water without supervision."

Unfortunately, a child without the necessary cognitive skills may be unable to transfer his knowledge from one context to another. A story told on-air by Kelly Ripa, co-host of Live with Regis and Kelly, illustrates this point. A few years ago, Ripa was talking about her family's trip to Hawaii during which her then-preschool-age son was standing in a koi pond feeding the fish. He suddenly slipped and fell face down into the pond. But since he’d been enrolled in swimming programs – several days a week for years – and possessed many certificates proclaiming he could swim, she and her husband merely waited for their son's swimming skills to kick in.

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