This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: With family budgets stretched ever tighter, swimming lessons can be one of the first expenses to be cut back—but with research showing swimming helps children not just physically but developmentally, researchers are calling for greater government support. A major four-year study spanning nearly 7,000 survey respondents and 177 individually tested children suggests that children who learn to swim early don't just become safer in the water and fitter, but also become more academically successful and more sociable than their peers.
This study has been unpacked, explored and expanded upon by researcher Robyn Jorgensen, emeritus professor at the University of Canberra, Australia, in her new book, "Why Young Children Should Learn to Swim." The project began with a conversation between Jorgensen and Laurie Lawrence, an Olympic swim coach inducted into both the Australian and U.S. Lawrence felt that children who learned to swim early were generally more "school-ready." "There was no formal evidence to support this observation, but it was one that Laurie felt he and many others in the swim industry observed," Jorgensen explains. Jorgensen and colleagues decided to verify this "industry hunch" through rigorous academic investigation using internationally recognized testing tools: the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales and Woodcock-Johnson III assessments, normed against national census data.
The results surprised even Jorgensen, who said, "My early observations of the young learners piqued my interest while retaining some sense of skepticism about what could be achieved. I am not from a swimming background, so had no vested interest in the 'proving' or otherwise of Laurie's hunch. My only interest in swimming was as a grandparent and around water safety for my children and grandchildren, and as a recreational activity." The study found that children younger than 5 who participated in swimming, regardless of socioeconomic background, could be 5–18 months ahead of the general population of children of the same age on milestones in literacy, numeracy and following instructions.
Jorgensen is keen to stress that this does not mean young children who have been learning to swim are innately "smarter"; instead, she argues swimming lessons build transferable skills and dispositions. For example, a child counting kicks from one to 10 with an instructor absorbs number sequencing and one-to-one correspondence—skills with direct value in a classroom. While many parents enroll children in swimming for safety reasons, Jorgensen's detailed study suggests participants gain measurable advantages in cognitive development, language skills and emotional regulation.
"It is reasonable to claim that swimming prepares children for the schooling years, particularly the early years and the transition into schooling," Jorgensen explains. Yet access to this advantage is sharply unequal. Most swim schools operate as commercial businesses, and cost is consistently identified as the single biggest barrier to participation.
According to Jorgensen's analysis, the biggest equity barrier is faced in the U.S. and China, where only very affluent families can afford regular swimming lessons. Singapore, Australia, Brazil and South Africa also face notable geographic and economic barriers to swimming. One respondent from Zimbabwe summed up the difficulty, saying: "So swimming is still seen in Africa in general as elite.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
