My VI child- becoming water confident

One of the additional worries that comes along with a VI child is water, hear from mummy, Vikki, as she talks about the work she has been doing with her daughter Willow around developing her swimming skills.

One thing I always wanted my children to be able to do is swim and be confident around water.

As a child, I had swimming lessons and even went on to do my lifeguarding badge, however, after a broken arm for 6 weeks which put me in a cast for six week, I unfortunately didn’t get to finish. These lessons massively helped with my water confidence and being able to use pools on holidays.

When I then went on to have my own children it was one of the things I was determined to do with them as well, my older children have had lessons and are both confident in the water and enjoy their independence.

When Willow came along that was one of things I had researched whilst pregnant again to get her straight into lessons, however upon learning of Willow’s visual impairment I knew that she not only needed to learn to swim, but needed to learn how to be safe in and around the pool. We then discovered Waterbabies and what a journey we have had for the last 2 years!

Along with fun in the water, we as parents are learning and teaching our kids to be safe in and around the water.

At first we found this challenging with Willow not being able to see what is happening around her. It was hard to get her to settle in lessons and for a while we didn’t think we was getting anywhere. Through perseverance with verbal guidance from us and adapting small things, we have got a better understanding of what we need to do to get the best from these lessons.

For instance, we use noodles as the flotation device, so we have put bells on one end so willow knows where to hold on. The swim teacher, Zoe, has also got a water proof speaker that we can connect to and play Willows favourite music when she gets overwhelmed with the noise. Zoe always involves Willow with the communication aspect of the lesson, and ensures she tells her what’s happening and praising her when she gets it spot on.

We have built such a great relationship with our Waterbabies family and have even become ‘Swimbassadors’ for Waterbabies sharing our journey with other parents.

We love our Saturday mornings swimming and now when we go to our local indoor and outdoor pools Willow has so much fun inclusive with the family!

If you would like to learn more about Willow click here!

If you would like to learn more about Willow’s fun in the garden click here!

If you would like to follow Willow’s journey on Instagram click here!