Do you know how important it is to nurture life skills? There are multiple benefits of choosing aquatic therapy or swimming lessons for children with Learning Disabilities.
Neurologically based disorders like Learning Disabilities impact a child’s attention, coordination, and processing. This can make it challenging to engage in traditional therapy and activities. However, swimming offers a unique and effective way to address these problems that kids with Learning Disabilities experience. You can use the Arizona empowerment scholarship funds to enroll your child for swimming. But first, you must know why you must consider special needs swim lessons for your child.
What are Learning Disabilities?
The term “learning disabilities” includes a wide range of neurologically based disorders with various presentations and degrees of severity. There could be issues with processing (visual or auditory), challenges with integration (prioritizing, organizing, following directions), memory deficits, difficulty with expressive language, and motor deficits.
Swimming for Children With Learning Disabilities
Research says that at least 1 in every 59 children has a learning disability, and 1 in 5 children have thinking differences like ADHD or Dyslexia. Learning disabilities are usually masked by other behavioral problems, such as impulsivity, inattention, inability to follow directions, and defiance.
If a child has these behavioral tendencies and is less aware of water safety, imagine the danger of an unsupervised water environment. It is important to teach children life-saving swim safety skills from a young age! If you are qualified for an Empowerment scholarship, find out how you can use it on swimming for kids.
How Adaptive Swim Lessons and Aquatic Therapy Help?
Part of the swimming program is to help improve water safety for children of all abilities and create a supportive environment where swimming skills can flourish. Aquatic therapy can help improve a child’s sensory needs, strength, coordination, and motor planning, enabling them to function safely in an aquatic environment.
Swim classes also help children develop awareness of water safety and independent movement. They foster a positive and functional relationship between special needs children and the water.
Adaptive Swim Lessons for Learning Disabilities
Learning to swim provides many benefits for children with learning disabilities. As a form of full-body exercise, swimming improves motor skills and coordination. It facilitates multiple joints working together simultaneously. Achieving swim milestones also gives children a sense of achievement and confidence in their abilities!
Many of these children struggle in school-based extracurriculars, so giving them this healthy way to succeed and build self-esteem is a point to consider! Following a set of directions can be difficult for kids with learning disabilities because of attention deficits or processing delays. Allowing these children to move their bodies freely in a structured environment can improve their ability to be more patient and follow directions!
Benefits of Swim Lessons for Learning Disabilities
- Improves motor skills and coordination.
- Improves attention.
- Builds confidence.
Aquatic Therapy for Learning Disabilities
Aquatic therapy can be extremely beneficial for children with Learning Disabilities! Many children with Learning Disabilities have difficulty paying their attention or following directions. Aquatic therapy uses the natural properties of the water to assist or resist movement, providing a child with vestibular and proprioceptive input, leading to improved attention and self-regulation.
Once the child is more regulated, they can focus and follow directions better. Once they can focus on the task, your therapist can use this opportunity to work on a functional activity! A great example of functional activity in the water is swimming because of the following positive impact-
- Focuses on improving swim strokes
- Successful sensory input aids in task achievement
- Improves overall motor skills for various activities
- Addresses retained primitive reflexes in some children
Does your kid with Learning Disabilities drop his lunch tray or fall out of a chair? Many parents would assume it is because of weakness or too much fidgeting. While that may be true for some, it happens because of retained primitive reflexes! Aquatic therapy is an excellent way to integrate those reflexes in a fun and engaging environment. At a swimming school, your child will not even know they are working!
The bottom line
If you want the best swimming instructors to guide your child with a learning disability, rely on Saguaro Aquatics. Get complete course benefits with the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship. As an approved ESA vendor, the team offers specialized swimming lessons to children who homeschool or have disabilities. The team has all the expertise in working with children with disabilities. Check out the best swimming program for your baby today, and let the fun of learning begin!
