Swim lessons teach Valley infants water survival skills

PHOENIX — There have already been a handful of child drownings in Arizona’s two most populated counties this year.

Darla Sandy wants to prevent another one.

She teaches water survival skills to children as young as 6 months old through a nationally recognized program called Infant Swimming Resource, or ISR.

“Our focus is safety and survival,” she said.

ISR master instructors, like Sandy, teach young children how to save themselves if they’re ever alone in the water. The classes are mostly geared toward children 6 years of age and younger.

“For the older kids, we teach them a swim-float-swim sequence so they can swim and exit the steps [of a pool],” she said. “If they need a breath, they learn to roll to their back and float.”

The younger children don’t have the motorized skills to swim yet, so they’re taught to roll onto their backs and float.

Wyatt is only 2 years old and already knows how to swim. He’s taking lessons through Infant Swimming Resource, which teaches water survival skills to children as young as 6 months old. More on this Friday morning on ⁦@KTAR923⁩ pic.twitter.com/W7Ms82oLq9

— Griselda Zetino (@GriseldaZetino) July 26, 2019

It takes three to five weeks for infants to master the ISR water survival skills and older kids take about six weeks. The lessons are taught five days a week, and each lesson is about 10 minutes long.

Children start the first few classes wearing swimsuits while they’re in the water, then they switch to wearing winter clothes and shoes.

That way if they reach the water alone and are fully clothed, they have the experience to do what’s necessary to save their own lives.

“The initial lessons, they might cry a little bit,” Sandy said. “But as they get control of the skill and they master it, they become really confident, strong swimmers.”

Drownings is the leading cause of unintentional deaths for children under 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of July 15, four children under 5 drowned in Maricopa and Pinal counties.

“The numbers are scary,” Sandy said.

She added the ISR swimming course is just one layer of protection from drowning for children.

“We want your pool fenced,” she said. “We want your eyes on your children, but we also know children are tricky and they get away from you.”

“So this is like our final layer,” she added, pointing to the water survival skills kids learn.

“If all of the other adult-imposed barriers break down, we want the child to be able to do something about it.”

KTAR News and Fulton Homes want to remind you that two seconds is too long to take your eyes off kids near water. To learn more about this campaign, visit the website. 

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