ABOUT LESSONS
Generally speaking, children ages 6 months to 18 months will learn the ISR Self-Rescue® skill of rolling onto their backs to float, rest and breathe (you can view an example videos here). They learn to maintain this position until help arrives. Children who are walking are taught to swim with their face in the water, and roll onto their back to float. After resting and breathing, they will roll over and continue to swim to the nearest point of safety. A child can perform this swim-float-swim sequence to reach safety in a survival situation.
NO! Infant Swim Rescue is based on 60+ years of research. ISR Instructors go through a rigorous 8-week in water and academic training on the principles of behavioral psychology, physiology, and sensorimotor learning as it applies to children in the water. Your child will learn skills in a way that honors his/her learning style. The ISR program is slow and controlled, and tailored to how children learn best. A child is NEVER thrown in the water - they will be gently introduced to the water and given small achievable challenges which are purposely set up to be accomplished successfully. Each day of lessons builds upon the previous, and in the end, your child will know how to save him/herself independently if the need arises. Add an answer to this item.
There is an important difference between being fearful and being apprehensive because you are not yet skilled in a new environment. ISR is not like traditional swim lessons; it is a drowning prevention program that teaches survival swimming. Sometimes as a parent, you make choices for your child’s safety, like sitting in a car seat, not letting them play in the street, or getting immunizations, because you know they are important. The same can be said for ISR. Fun can be defined as when skill meets challenge. Once competent in their skills, many children cannot be dragged away from the pool. They are having entirely too much FUN.
ISR claims a retention rate of 94-100% up to one year following lessons. Having said this, children will explore and may pick up bad habits watching other children or with interference like floating in a bathtub or hot tub or playing on the steps or wearing floatation devices. As your child goes through lessons, you will begin to understand, through communication with your Instructor, what activities may interfere with his/her learned Self-Rescue skills. Contacting and/or returning to your instructor promptly is imperative to maintaining effective habits. This is why refresher lessons are very important as well to maintain their skills.
Children often fuss during the first few lessons because they are in a new environment and around new people. As your child becomes more confident in his/her ability in the water, the fussing will decrease. It is not unlike the first time you tried a new exercise class or were asked to perform a task at work that you'd never done before: the first time you try a new task it is always challenging until you get the hang of it. It is the same for your young child. Your child is learning to perform a skill that he/she's never done before. Crying is sometimes the only way that they can communicate. Many kids progress quickly to the point of looking forward to coming to lessons!
ISR is appropriate for infants and children 6 months to 6 years old. "The sooner, the safer" in order to set up correct postures, establish proper breath control, initial learning and muscle memory interactions in the water. I have no upper age limit to teach children how to swim and older kids will usually learn this technique quite quickly depending on their comfort level in the water.
Absolutely! We teach children to have a healthy respect for the water, and work in very small increments each day. We present children with small achievable tasks and always set them up to succeed. They learn to trust their skills, and in turn, they gain an incredible amount of confidence in the water.
We encourage families to consider lessons in the "off season" to arm their child with aquatic skills BEFORE pools begin to open for the summer. It is for this reason that Fall & Winter are the sessions that have the most slots for new students, but a common hesitation from parents is that the child will forget if they don't learn right before swim season.
Luckily ISR Self-Rescue Skills are a sensorimotor skill- just like crawling, walking, or riding a bike. Sensorimotor skills are not simply forgotten, although they can certainly get rusty without use.
This is why we will encourage you to return for Refresher lessons periodically after your child’s initial learning. These follow up learning opportunities will ensure your little one gets to adjust their skills to their rapid growth and will keep things sharp.
We split time between South Calgary, AquaDive and Water Sports and Genesis Place in Airdrie. We are always looking for more pool space as well.
The are many reasons for this. First, repetition and consistency are crucial elements of learning for young children. Research shows that short, more frequent lessons result in higher retention. Second, most children have fairly short attention spans and will not be able to focus on the task for longer and we want to take advantage of the best time for learning. A third reason is that, though the pool temperature is maintained at 78-88 degrees, the temperature is still lower than your child's body temperature. Lessons are work and therefore will also be losing body heat. Instructors check students regularly for temperature fatigue since this is also an indicator of physical fatigue.
The 6-week average is based on the average time it takes most children to learn these survival skills. Every child is unique, and ISR’s Self-Rescue program is designed based on your child’s specific strengths and needs. It is important to realize that this is an average, meaning some children will finish more quickly while others will need more practice. ISR is dedicated to safety; therefore, we want to provide your child with the appropriate time and best opportunity to become proficient in his/her survival skills. We will always honor your child’s needs.
Program fees:
On location private lessons are assessed on a case by case basis. For private lesson inquiries, email us and we can let you know if it's something we are able to work into the existing or upcoming schedule. We typically can only fit in one indoor private stop in the during the fall/winter. Private lessons start at $300/week/student and depending on location may incur an additional travel fee.
If you want lessons to be at your home for convenience purposes but without the private lesson premium, consider applying to be a host pool. Host families allow us to use their pool for a daily ~2.5 hour block of time, M-F for the 6 week session.
The perks of hosting are guaranteed spot in session, preferred choice of timeslot for the host family's children and the host family can enjoy a non-existent commute. Hosting is also a great way to "do your part" ensuring not only your own children get skilled, but to help us reach more children in your very own community.
Primary requirements are a convenient location in the Calgary area, a heated pool to 86-88 degrees a set of shallow end steps or sun shelf. Email us for a full list of requirements for hosting!
Parents are not required to get in the water. Before your child is skilled, you may get in the pool in order to learn how to maintain your child's skills and avoid interference with what they have learned.
Great question! ISR has been researched and developed for 60+ years. It’s internationally recognized as the safest swim program for infants and children. Your children will learn life saving skills that traditional lessons do not provide. If you are looking for a swim class that focuses on socialization and play rather than safety and survival, you might consider traditional swim lessons.
1. ISR teaches your children to SWIM. There are no other programs in Canada that will teach your child to swim with his face in the water or offer any sort of guarantee about what he will learn. Many parents come to us after spending hundreds of dollars on traditional “swim” programs frustrated because their child doesn’t have any discernible skills after weeks, months, or even years of lessons.
2. You do not need to enroll your children into swim lessons summer after summer, year after year. Once they learn these skills, they have them forever. With maintenance and refresher lessons, they will retain their skills indefinitely. You end up spending more money over time on traditional lessons that are taught by former high school swimmers or university students trying to make some spending money over the summer. Speaking of teaching credentials…
3. Every ISR instructor undergoes 8 weeks of intense training. Hands on, in the pool with an ISR Master Instructor and students, learning the ISR method. For 8 weeks, we are in the pool 5x per week for several hours a day, for a minimum of 60 hours with ACTUAL students. In addition, we receive extensive hours of academic training in anatomy, physiology, child psychology, behavior and development, sensorimotor learning, and how each relates to the aquatic environment. Every instructor also maintains CPR and First Aid certifications, as well as annual recertification and testing to maintain our ISR certification and skills.
4. Lastly, if you add up what you’d spend in a traditional swim program for a few weeks during the summer – where he leaves the class with little to no skills – and then multiply that by every summer until he is 6 years old, this program costs significantly less and the value is infinitely greater.
Because 86% of children, who fall in the water, do so fully clothed, we want our students to have experience with such a situation. If a child has experienced the sensations of being in the water in clothing before an emergency, he/she is less likely to experience panic and be able to focus on the task at hand. If you have ever jumped in the water with clothes on, then you know that there is a significant difference in weight and feel with clothes as opposed to a bathing suit.
Swimming in clothes is part of ISR’s check out procedures, which a student completes near the end of his/her session when his/her skills are fully shaped.
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