Benefits of Teaching Babies to Swim

Weekly Trip to the Library for Nannies and Au Pairs

An important part of summer fun with children is swimming. But, researchers from Britain and Norway have found that swimming is much more than fun -- they found developmental benefits of having children learn to swim when they are babies.

Research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology shows that baby swimmers have better balance and are also better at grasping at things than non-swimmers. This difference persists even when children are five-years old, when babies who have been taught to swim still outperform their peers. Click here to access that article.

So, for our Weekly Trip to the Library this week we recommend the following books about teaching babies and young children to swim.

Click here for a list of children's books about water safety.

Learn to Swim: Step-by-Step Water Confidence and Safety Skills for Babies and Young Children by Kathy and Rob McKay

Rob and Kathy McKay are the founders of the pioneering Lifestyle Swim School at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, which is renowned for teaching children aged six-months to four-years to swim. As leading authorities on swim instruction for young children, they appear regularly on national television, contribute to magazines, and speak at conferences around the world. Learn to Swim guides parents and caregivers of babies and children from ages six-months to four-years, through progressive, baby-friendly lessons that not only build confidence and help control sleeping problems and tantrums, but are proven to stimulate intelligence and concentration, increase emotional and physical development, and boost immunities.



How To Teach Your Baby To Swim by Douglas Doman

Teaching an infant or toddler to swim is not only a matter of safety, but also a great way to stimulate physical coordination, concentration, and intelligence — all the while making the child happier, healthier, and more self-confident. Based on the revolutionary learning principles developed at The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, How to Teach Your Baby to Swim pairs 160 photographs with detailed instructions for teaching a child to dive, float, and swim.