any child with SN been swimming with dolphins

[desperateSCOUSEwife]

Would really like to plan ahead for next year and take ds2 to go swimming with dolphins for his 10th birthday

heard they are great with children with SN

as you know ds2 has very profound SN and cant walk, talk etc
he is like a 6 mo baby in a 7yr old body iykwim

found a site called zoomarine.com
but the children will have to understand and obey commands etc which ds2 cant do

has anyone heard of any other organizations
has anyone done this with their child/and was it good or bad experience for your child

any advice greatly appreciated

We've only been on the swimming with dolphines simulator they used to have at London Zoo! DS loved it, made me feel sick.

Seriously though, I have a good friend who took her DS to Florida in Jan 2006. She said the whole holiday/package was amazing. I'll ask her for some info.

The only place I've ever seen that you can swim with dolphins was in florida but can't remember the organisation, sorry.

This website you found that organise it - if you rang them and talked them through your situation perhaps they would sort something out for you and your DS?

Sounds like a lovely, lovely thing to do, hope you get it sorted.

A school friend of mine has a younger brother (I'll call him "A") with Charge Syndrome, he is now in his late teens (kind of irrelevant!). The whole family went swimming with dolphins in Florida about 10 years ago. Don't know which operator they used but A's disability is/was pretty profound (not mobile, deaf, blind in one eye, very very poor sight in the other, no real speech etc) and afaik there was no problem with the severity of his problems. His Mum got in the water with him.

DP and i swam with dolphins in Mexico - NOT cancun, the other end of the country, i'll try and find it for you in a minute.

We went on a daytrip - so i don't know whether they did specific activities for children with SN.

I can totally understand how it can help children though, as dp and i were absolutely overwhelmed. A small group of us went into this very large swimming pool and were given time to just play around with the dolphins. Then we held their fins and got dragged around the pool by th dolphins.

If you were to do something like that, and you went in with your ds, they wouldn't need to be able to obey commands, you could understand the instruction from staff and ensure your children were safe.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is where we stayed.

\link{http://www.charterdreams.com/dolphinswim/index.html\and this is a site with info about the dolphins}

I had a quick look and can't see specific SN activities, but you may be able to make further enquiries.

HTH!

I live in the Algarve where Zoomarine is & remember a conversation with school support a few years back about them doing SN/dolphin interaction - my ds is still too young so didn't pursue it. I think you should contact them directly explaining the situation - I've always found it a very child friendly, geared towards education type place. Good luck & I'll be interested to know how you get on

my friend has a ds with cp and a few years ago she went to america and swam with dolphins. They did lots with her and it sounded really good.
If you want to give me a list of questions I can ring her over the next couple of days and get back to you.
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Thankyou all for the advice,:)
i think I will phone up zoomarine and ask them whether we can take ds2 and whether dh can go into the water with him (as i can not lift him anymore as he is too heavy)

Will post any info etc still on this thread just in case anyone needs it in the future
and please do the same too all you wonderful mnetters who have any info.

Thanx again:)

plenty on net all offering different services. some have set programs for sn with physio input sounds ecellent, but qite expensive. the ones we looked at were in florida. one company had captured dolphins, other companies did expeditions to the ocean to swim with wild dolphins. you have to take your chances that the dolphins will be swimming in the area though. you can book everything on line too.

Just got this info from my friend who went in January:
We went to Discovery Cove, part of Seaworld to swim with the dolphins(you have to be age 6) - no more than 6 in a group. This was all through Virgin but you can book it completely separately. I know there are other -places in Florida which are day excursions - will probably be in the Virgin brochure.

DSW - we looked at zoomarine for dd (she's 12 and is a little physically restricted) They didn't seem very flexible with regard to their regulations although I didn't actually speak with them only e-mailed.

Have you thought of approaching one of the charities - Make a Wish or similar? The organisations offering the swims are often more relaxed when it's organised through a charity as they cover the insurance aspects.