Swim Australia delivers water safety skills to help children become safer, smarter and stronger

Children are SAFER, SMARTER & STRONGER simply by learning to swim according to learn-to-swim experts and national swim authority, Swim Australia.

Between 19th and 25th November, Swim Australia is holding its annual Swim Safer Week. “More than one million Aussie kids will take part in Swim Safer Week with Beach Safety in the spotlight leading into summer” said Swim Australia Executive Officer Gary Toner.

“We’re so thrilled to have partnered with the iconic Bondi Rescue for our 5th year of educating kids and their parents about the potential perils of water and how to become safer in it” said Toner.

Nearly 500 registered swim schools and 600,000 swimming families from across the country will take the plunge and participate in educational activities to gain vital water safety skills, all while becoming ‘safer, smarter and stronger’ in the process.

“For a long time, we’ve personally witnessed the benefits young children can experience physically, emotionally and socially, simply by learning to swim. But now it’s very exciting to finally reveal proof, pinpointing the holistic advantages assisted by swimming from a young age,” said Toner.

Recent world first research, performed by Griffith Institute for Educational Research, and part funded by Swim Australia, proved regular and ongoing pool practice from a young age, could make kids SMARTER.

"Around 7000 parents of children aged five years and under - from Australia, New Zealand and the US - were surveyed, and found children who learned how to swim from a young age, were anywhere from six to 15 months ahead of the normal population, when it came to cognitive skills, problem solving in mathematics, counting, language and following instructions,” said Toner.

Associate Professor, Peter Reaburn from CQUniversity confirms, swimming can equally make your kids STRONGER. “Regular physical activity in childhood provides the foundation for an active lifestyle. Swimming improves strength because it provides resistance training in the water. Swimming improves cardiovascular fitness because it stimulates the heart, lungs and muscles to not only improve circulation to working muscles, but it increases the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood and the muscle’s ability to take up and use oxygen for energy production.”

Swim Australia says, swimming year-round, learning and abiding by vital water safety skills, and participating in the Swim SAFER Week, will not only help kids become safer, smarter and stronger in and around water, but in everyday life as well.

Toner concluded, “swimming should be about having fun, first and foremost. However, it is a necessary and a potentially lifesaving skill, so is something that should be formally learned from as young as four months, under the guidance of a qualified teacher and a swim school registered with Swim Australia.”