ASD DD and swimming lessons- fear of water

[SuspiciousRinds]

Please help I’m at the end of my tether with wasted time, money and arguing. The only after school lesson I have insisted on for DD is swimming lessons as this is important for safety. It’s also (potentially) fun and very good for you. So she doesn’t do anything else just weekly swimming lessons.

DD11 has ASD and some PDA traits. She now won’t go to swimming any more because she’s afraid of being in the water. The last two years of swimming lessons have been very difficult but I have managed to persuade her to go in maybe 60% of the time. If we swim as a family she is absolutely fine. She has also gone swimming once or twice with a friend with parents sitting on the side. Now she’s started at secondary school, she’s limped through a couple of swimming lessons with massive protest but now just won’t go at all. She won’t say what about being in the water is frightening but I know it’s a fear about something that isn’t real (so think, like a shark attack) so I am really struggling how to handle it. She’s very upset and adamant about not going. Before I cancel the swimming lessons, is there anything else I can try?

Have you tried 1:1 lessons, a smaller pool &/or a quieter time, and someone who has SEN experience?

Failing that, if DD swims fine during family swims, can you go more often?

Thanks these are all good suggestions, we do go to the autism friendly family swim session as often as we can, but I am not a good swimmer myself so cant really pass on that much technique about how to do it.
i don’t know how to find a 1:1 swimming teacher with autism experience but if anyone has got suggestions for that I’d be interested
I’m not sure it’s a worry about the pool size as such, think maybe it’s something about feeling scared to swim from A to B alone with the adult up on the pool side, rather than in the water, but I don’t really know.

It’s hard to know exactly what the fear is without more input from her isn’t it.

My ds(9) has done brilliantly with 1:1 swimming lessons. She gets in the water with him and they have a lot of fun but he’s also learned loads. I found her via a recommendation from another parent at my ds’ specialist school but she’s just employed by our local pool. If you wanted to find someone who provides 1:1 with experience you could:

• call the local pools and ask. Lots of pools run SEN classes so they may have someone.
• call local SEN schools and ask if they can recommend anyone.
• see if there’s a local SEN support Facebook group and ask for recommendations there. There’s one for our LA and you just need to answer a couple of questions to join.

A smaller pool isn’t necessarily about the size of the pool per se, but about the number of other people around and the wider sensory environment.

If you ask around locally you may find who offers 1:1 lessons &/or someone with SEN experience. Googling may also give suggestions.

Thank you both for your tips. I have a faceless franchise type local swimming pool leisure centre and it’s impossible to get to speak to a person on the front desk without queuing for hours in person which I can’t do with DC, and they don’t pick up the phone. Not easy to ask them for advice for SEN kids’ needs.

But there is a local special school that I could ask so I appreciate that tip- my DD is in mainstream at least for now, but I could see if they had a contact to share.

I don’t know other SEN parents to ask but will try word of mouth and Facebook is a good shout. I was hoping that someone would magically know of a national register of swimming teachers with SEN experience, but if something that simple existed I know that someone on here would already know about it! So I will keep looking. Thanks for your posts.

You could contact your local parent carer forum to see if they have a support group or events where you could meet other parents.

I don’t know whether British Swimming would be able to help or not.

Where are you? Our local swim team runs a disability squad that starts with learn to swim and moves up to squad swimming. Lessons are small, quiet and with specially trained teachers. It's also super cheap! Most of the kids I would say are ND.

DC1 is a really good swimmer but hated group lessons. The pool is total chaos, noise, hot, loads of kids, they can't hear properly. Basically an ASD nightmare. She had some 121s (on reflection I think the teacher was autistic also), then I taught her for a while, then she joined the squad.

Generally I think British Swimming caters quite badly for autistic children- there's a paraswimming category but IQ has to be below 75, otherwise they don't quite seem to know what to do with you.

Also if she is fine as a family maybe just do that for a bit. Get some sinky toys to dive for and just have fun. Reset the relationship with the pool. You might find she starts swimming a stroke or two to move across the pool and she might start swimming a little on her own.

Thank you Croissant I think I have been too hung up because DD is noticing that she’s older at 11 than other kids at her stage (stage 5) the main thing is to get her back into not being terrified of water.
I also thought I could email our pool-add it to the pile of DD- related admin there is. Email seems to be the only way the leisure company seem to not block contact with customers . I could just say that the classes are too overwhelming with noise/lights/busy with people/not supporting her anxieties and that we’re reluctantly going to have to stop assuming they don’t offer anything more suitable at that pool (if they do it isn’t advertised). I will also ask if they can signpost anything more suitable for her elsewhere.
I’ll look up British Swimming and disability. We’re in London.

British Swimming doesn’t set the para-swimming rules. The classification system is an international system. Even though there isn’t a classification system for those with autism without an intellectual impairment (unless they meet one of the other eligibility criteria) BS may still be able to signpost to somewhere suitable.

Thanks I did look at their website but they only seem to want qu about elite swimming and we’re definitely not at that level, but I do appreciate the thought.

If British Swimming can’t help, try Swim England. I didn’t suggest them to start with in case you weren’t in England.

@YellowRosesWithRedTips I know they don't set the rules. Australia though have introduced an S18 and S19 category for ASD & Down Syndrome domestically and I don't see why they couldn't do the same. Autistic swimmers often have dyspraxia and hypotonia as co morbidity and it just seems a bit rubbish there's no home or pathway for them in addition to the challenges of even accessing the pool in the first place.

Anyway, off topic- OP have you also looked up hydrotherapy pools in your area? They might offer something. But do look up swim clubs, the pool (if it's a Better/Fusion scenario) are unlikely to know what the clubs actually do. If you're in South London by any chance give me a DM.

I am aware those with ASD often have other co-morbid conditions. Autism covers such a wide presentation of needs I don’t see how one overall classification for autism would be fairer than now. A large subsection of the autistic population would be disadvantaged like they are now.