Swimming?

[Holycowiloveyoureyes]

I'm currently waiting for a GP appointment to discuss my concerns about DS (6).

I've always had a gut feeling he's on the autistic spectrum though my DH and parents have always said I'm imagining it.

However as he's getting older things are becoming more apparent to them that maybe he is wired up differently to his peers.

Anyway, my question. He's been going to swimming lessons for over a year and there has been hardly any progress. He just can't seem to get what he needs to do. He enjoys it but bless him, he's bad at it!
He's fine physically in other things, rode a bike at 4, climbs well etc. I was wondering if struggling with swimming is typical of children with ASD?

I realise this is probably a stupid question I'm just trying to gather all evidence I can for the GP visit.

Well yes, the two are possibly related. Sometimes ASD kids do have difficulty acquiring skills. dd2 learned to swim, forgot, then learned, then forgot. Same with riding a bike. Difficulty acquiring skills can be seen in the same bracket of loss of skills. As with my dd2 and the can/can't ride a bike... the two are different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Your GP may or may not be clued up about this but I would deffo include.

Thank you Handy, will put it on my list.

It's getting longer and longer

I don't know if there's a proper connection, but my son with aspergers is awful at swimming, after years and years and years of lessons. He's really athletic, and fast at other sports, and has good coordination etc, hit all physical milestones early, so it's a bit of a mystery to me. Has big problems with competative aspects of sport mind you, and the other problem with swimming is the sensory overload aspect of noisy echoey pools, where people shout to be heard.

Interesting Singy.

DS hit all his physical milestones early too. He tries so hard at swimming, but cannot grasp it. At least he's happy to get his face wet now.

DS (HF ASD) learned to ride a bike at 5 (although lost his confidence and rode with 1 stabiliser back on the bike again for a while) but could cycle miles now - if I could get him off the PS3. He is also a fantastic swimmer, but at the age of your DS Holycow he was having 1:1 swimming lessons and not progressing, but that was down to him not wanting to put his face in the water. I'm sure his arms grew 2" as the instructor tried to get him to retrieve objects from the pool steps . He could swim doggy paddle at that point though. In the end, we stopped the lessons for a couple of years and then went back to them - just taking him to the pool ourselves instead. Eventually he just seemed to get it and went back to lessons and progressed through all the levels and on to swim club. He is a better swimmer than me now.

So I'm not sure if it is all ASD related any more than some people can swim and ride bikes and some people can't. I know adults who have never learned to do either, but don't have any other difficulties.

Thank you bigblue, for the last 4 weeks he's been having 1:1 but it hasn't made any difference. He still can't swim even half a width.

It could just be one of those things, I'm just trying to write down everything of note so we can get a referral.