Is Your Therapy Center Missing Drowning Prevention Opportunities?

Are you a pediatric therapy center, behavior management school or clinic looking to improve water safety for your families of children with Autism, sensory or motor challenges?

Drowning is a leading cause of death for young children. Alarmingly, more children between the ages of 1–4 die from drowning than any other cause. While learning to swim by taking formal swim lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88% for this age group, children with Autism and other conditions face an additional challenge. These conditions are associated with a higher risk of drowning.

We have 2 strategies that you can immediately implement at your organization to educate your community about drowning prevention and enhance safety in and around water.

How to Help Children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Learn About Water Safety

Did you know you can easily equip your clinic to provide water safety information to families?

During a recent visit to a local therapy center we were brainstorming about our adaptive water safety toolkit and what action they could take at the clinic to help children with Autism and special educational needs or disabilities to become familiar with rescue equipment.

  • Exploration
    We discovered that a great extra layer of protection was to keep a rescue tube in the motor or sensory room for use during therapy sessions.

  • Educate
    We recommend placing a copy of the toolkit in the waiting room. This allows parents to learn about water safety while their child is in therapy. Busy schedules can make it difficult for parents of special needs children to find resources. This simple step provides them with crucial information in a convenient way.

A lightbulb of an idea, an AHA moment…such a simple yet powerful way to address water safety.

Here’s Why These Simple Strategies Can Be a Game-Changer for Water Safety

WHY you ask? Well, let’s dive into the reasons why this could be just the activity to promote water safety:

  • Therapeutic environments including motor and sensory rooms are designed to encourage exploration. There are usually multiple toys and items to play with, so why not include a rescue tube?
  • Introducing a rescue tube in this setting allows children to become familiar with it through play. They will be able to look at, feel, and interact with the rescue tube. This goes beyond just visual recognition.
  • Therapeutic games can incorporate holding, touching and squeezing the rescue tube or simulating a rescue scenario by holding it together with the therapist.
  • Familiarity can be crucial in a real-life situation. When a rescue tube is offered to a struggling swimmer, knowing what it is and how to hold it can make a significant difference.
  • Next time you go to the pool, take a moment to get in the water with a rescue tube and come up with creative ways that you could incorporate this piece of equipment into your land-based activities.

Whether you’re a therapist, clinic owner, or a parent, consider incorporating this idea into your child’s weekly therapy activities. In fact, this approach can benefit all children, not just those with special needs.

Ailene Tisser, MA, PT, Founder

Ailene is a pediatric Physical Therapist with more than 25 years of experience treating a variety of diagnoses, both in and out of the water. She is NDT (Neuro-Developmental Treatment) trained in pediatrics and is trained in DIR/Floortime. She is currently certified as an Autism Specialist by IBCCES. Ailene brings all of her Physical Therapy expertise into the water, where she helps children of all abilities feel safe, confident, and independent. She combines her passion and skill for working with children with special needs with the therapeutic properties of the water to achieve amazing results. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience by educating other Aquatic Professionals so that they can also make a significant impact on the lives of swimmers with special needs.

Cindy Freedman, MOTR, Founder

Cindy is a recreational therapist and an Occupational therapist. After working for ten years as a recreational therapist in a variety of settings, she pursued a Master’s degree in OT. Her career as an OT includes specialty training in sensory integration, reflex repatterning, and aquatics. She is currently certified as an Autism Specialist by IBCCES. As a swimmer and national champion diver, Her love of the water combined with her education and work experience created them an opportunity for Swim Angelfish to become a reality! “Our mission is to create an aquatic community of trained instructors so that together we can decrease the alarming statistic of drowning being the leading cause of death for children with special needs.”