Helping Anxious Kids Feel Safe in Water
Swimming is more than just a fun activity—it’s a vital life skill and an important safety measure. For children who feel anxious around water, learning to swim can be overwhelming. The following tips are based on scientific research and can help you manage swimming anxiety, one splash at a time.
1) Set clear and achievable goals
“Learning how to swim” can sound quite vague and intimidating. Set clear expectations, like “learning to float on my back”, “going from the ladder to the other end of the swimming pool”, or “keeping my head above the water for one minute”. You can break down the skill as much as you need: no step is too small to start from!
2) Use Behavioral Skills Training
Use instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback to teach specific water skills. For example, you can provide the instruction “kick your legs continuously for five seconds”. Then, you can model kicking your legs, and the child can rehearse the skill (first outside of the water, then inside). After that, you can provide feedback on what is done well and what can be done differently.
3) Positive reinforcement
Respond to the child in a way that will increase the chances of them engaging in swimming-related activities. Immediate enthusiastic praise can work for a lot of children. Sometimes, adding a reward, like going for an ice-cream after swimming practice, can make a big difference. The secret here is to involve the child in choosing their reward: this way you can ensure they will feel sufficiently motivated to overcome water fear.
For older children:
4) Use self-monitoring strategies
Using strategies to track one’s progress can help in promoting self-awareness and accountability (not only for kids, but for adults as well). For better results, personalise the tracking system to the child’s interests: decorate any charts or notebooks using as a theme the child’s favourite sport or cartoon.
5) Promote values-based action
Ask your child: what is important to them? Why do they need to learn how to swim? It could be spending time with friends, learning a new skill or keeping themselves safe. Whatever their motivation, it is important provide reminders in days where practising swimming feels hard.
Whichever strategy you choose to try, it is important to adapt it based on your child’s unique responses, strengths and progress with water fear.
Written by Elena Marinopoulou
If your child’s fear with swimming or other activities feel overwhelming or beyond your ability to support, you can seek professional help here.
Elena Marinopoulou is a Behaviour Analyst and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Practitioner with Willingness Team.
References:
Harris, R. (2009). Act made simple: An easy-to-read primer on acceptance and commitment therapy. New Harbinger Publications.
Chan, P. E. (2011). Making a splash: Eliminating water phobia and increasing confident water skills (Master’s thesis, University of South Florida). Scholar Commons. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/3038
