the many benefits of swimming for autistic children

Teaching autistic children to swim has numerous benefits, first being that drowning in the NUMBER ONE KILLER of kids who have autism. I’ve written these two posts on swimming and the autistic child:

The first I highly recommend reading, 4 Reasons Why You Should Teach Your Autistic Child to Swim.

Also check out, How to Teach Autistic Children to Swim

I recently came across an excellent article by Vee Cecil on Sacramento Autism Spectrum and Special Needs Alliance’s website listing additional benefits of swimming for children on the autism spectrum. I like Vee’s points because they go beyond safety reasons, and reach into the real heart of the matter, the person, what the autistic person wants and desires, how to meet them where they are.

I can attest to the benefits Vee’s lists because I consistently witness how much Jeremiah loves swimming. During our most recent swimming adventure, he splashed around in water up to his neck.

For him it was freedom, exhilaration, and a sensory-filled universe.

The more Jeremiah learns what his parameters are in the water, the more he’ll realize what is safe and what isn’t (with complete adult supervision, meaning someone VERY close by). We will continue to work on those swimming skills I mentioned in the post listed above. He’s gaining skills, maybe not as quickly as we’d like, but we’re moving forward, and progress with any autistic child is it’s own unique adventure.

Does your child love to swim? Share your experiences in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!

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