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1.
 Interview with Jeanne Wilson-Valanta
Long-Time ARC Swim Teacher
by Deborah Griffith MacSwain, for the American Red Cross
| Commodore Wilbert E. Longfellow was famous for saying, “Entertain them hugely while educating them gently!” Credited for starting the Red Cross swim and lifesaving programs in the early 1900's, Longfellow helped drastically reduce the number of drownings in the country. He was an entertaining man dedicated to ensuring, “Every American a swimmer, every swimmer a lifesaver.” His impact on the Red Cross swimming program is still seen today as his teaching methods and philosophy continue to play a large part in the training of Red Cross water safety instructors.
One instructor is Jeanne Wilson-Valanta of San Lorenzo, California. “Keep the fun in the fundamentals, water unlocks inhibitions,” and, “If you want to get ashore, reach for it,” - all Commodore sayings - could easily describe the love Wilson-Valanta has for teaching and the way she goes about helping thousands learn to blow bubbles, float and move through the water.
“I was born in the water,” says Wilson-Valanta. Well, not exactly, but she grew up around the water and remembers swimming at age five or six. That was after she went down a water slide that dumped her in deep water. Her parents had to pull her out. The experience did not dampen her enthusiasm, and a teaching swimming legend was born in Oakland, California.
Now, 81 years old, Wilson-Valanta has taught Red Cross swimming lessons for the past 64 years. She began her Red Cross water safety instructor career in 1941 when she took the training course. “When World War II came along, the Oakland Red Cross Chapter in California asked me to teach Army and Navy nurses going overseas. I was quite excited and taught three nights a week in 1942,” said Wilson-Valanta. For her efforts, she received a citation signed by President Harry S. Truman, dated 1946. The citation in part reads, “In recognition of meritorious personal service performed in behalf of the nation for armed forces and suffering humanity in (the) Second World War.”
In the 1950's she thought she would take time out from teaching swimming to raise her family. The chapter had other thoughts. After learning that she could not teach because she had young children and no babysitter, the chapter provided one for her. In her early teaching career she taught swimming and lifesaving mostly to young children and teenagers. “In those days I worked well with kids, not so much with adults. I did not have the patience (to work with adults).” Today it is a different story and she loves working with adults.
Wilson-Valanta conservatively estimates she has taught at least 10,000 students. Adults account for more than half that number and are often the most challenging to teach. It takes motivation, repetition and lots of patience. For the past 15 years, she has worked with adults only. Her oldest student is 89 and her youngest students are in their 40's.
One can't teach 10,000 students without having a few stories to tell. Trying to learn how to dive and swim underwater is difficult for some students. One woman just could not swim underwater. One day the woman called out, “Look at me, look at me swim underwater.” Wilson-Valanta replied, “Okay, just a minute, I'm working with someone else.” Her student was determined that Wilson-Valanta watch her, and sure enough, she went right down to the bottom of the pool. After she came up, she turned towards Wilson-Valanta and started pulling weights from her swimsuit! So much for swim aides. The class got a great laugh.
Once in a while students will leave something in the pool. Wilson-Valanta was teaching a woman how to dive. The student went off the board and came up….without her false teeth. Wilson-Valanta had no problem finding them. “They were sitting right there on the bottom of the pool, so I brought them up.”
Ask Wilson – Valanta what she likes best about teaching and she quickly says, “The people.” She found that adults who sometimes have had bad past experiences around the water are most appreciative of her and learning basic water skills. One woman who had been terrified of the water and took lessons from Wilson-Valanta years before came back to see her teacher and explain how she (Wilson-Valanta) had saved her life. According to Wilson-Valanta, the woman was vacationing in the mountains and took a walk late at night by the lake. The next thing she knew she had fallen into the lake. “All she heard was my voice telling her to float on your back and yell, which she did. People heard her and came to her aid,” said Wilson –Valanta. That is the ultimate reward for teaching swimming – knowing you have helped save a life.
Wilson – Valanta has trained more than 10,000 people with life saving skills. She is still teaching after 64 years, and has no plans to quit. She also ensured that her life long interest in swimming continues as a family affair. Her son, two daughters and a daughter-in-law have all been trained as Red Cross water safety instructors and two grand daughters are current water safety instructors.
Wilson-Valanta's last words are typical of a swim teacher. She said, “Swimming is something kids do and (should) keep up. It (swimming) is wonderful to do when you are older.” As Commodore Longfellow used to say, “A swim a day keeps old age away”! No kidding.
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2. Baby Signs
How to Talk with Your Baby
Before Your Baby Can Talk
by
Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D. and
Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
 Note: Baby Signs are signs that are taught to the babies....80% are American Sign Language and the others are modified signs for little fingers... most babies do use their own unique signs before they can talk and this program taps into that preverbal skill.
Dr. Susan Goodwyn and Dr. Linda Acredolo, the authors of the book Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk have conducted over two decades of academic research on the use of signs with hearing babies, including a long-term study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Their ground-breaking research describes the proven benefits of the Baby Signs® Program.
Want to skim the new edition of the book? Click here
For those interested in reading more about the background research concerning the Baby Signs® Program (known in scholarly journals as "symbolic gesturing"), the following articles are recommended.
Susan Goodwyn, Linda Acredolo, and Catherine Brown (2000). Impact of symbolic gesturing on early language development. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 24 (2), pp. 81-103. Available online.
Acredolo, L. P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (July 2000). The long-term impact of symbolic gesturing during infancy on IQ at age 8. Paper presented at the meetings of the International Society for Infant Studies, Brighton, UK. Available online.
Brie Moore, Linda Acredolo, & Susan Goodwyn (April 2001). Symbolic gesturing and joint attention: Partners in facilitating verbal development. Paper presented at the Biennial Meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development. Available online.
Sheri Anderson, a Certified Independent BABY SIGNS® instructor from the state of Michigan, says that using signs actually enhances language, cognitive, and social-emotional development. And the program...
| • Reduces frustration and builds trust |
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• Allows babies to share their worlds |
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• Strengthens the parent/infant bond |
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• Reveals how smart babies really are |
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• Promotes positive emotional development |
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• Boosts babies’ self confidence |
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• Helps babies learn to talk |
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• Jumpstarts intellectual development |
Want to skim the new edition of the by Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D. and
Linda Acredolo, book? Click here
The following articles are part of the complete Baby Signs® Bibliography
Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn (1985). Symbolic gesturing in language development: A case study. Human Development, 28, 40-49.
This article presents the story of our first "Baby Signer," Linda’s daughter Kate who began to spontaneously create symbolic gestures when she was about 12 months old. These were "sensible" gestures (like sniffing for "flower" and arms-up for "big"). We then made it easy for her by modeling other simple gestures for things in which she was interested and followed her progress in terms of both gestural and verbal development.
Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn (1988). Symbolic gesturing in normal infants. Child Development, 59, 450-466.
Readily Available in Libraries.
Our goal in the two separate studies described in this article was to learn more about the spontaneous development of symbolic gestures by infants. Was Linda’s daughter alone in doing so (see Acredolo & Goodwyn, 1985) or were other babies as creative as Kate? The answer was extremely clear. Although Linda was a bit disappointed to learn that Kate was not totally unique, she quickly became excited to see that most babies create at least one or two such symbolic gestures and that some children, like Kate, create many. The article also describes (a) relations with verbal development, (b) the sources of the gestures in the babies’ everyday lives, (c) and gender and birth order differences.
Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn (1990). The significance of symbolic gesturing for understanding language development. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of Child Development (Vol. 7, pp. 1-42). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Readily Available in Libraries.
This invited chapter provided an opportunity for us to review the role that symbolic gestures, including formal sign language systems such as ASL, seem to play in the development of verbal language in hearing children. We describe many classic case studies (e.g., Holmes & Holmes, 1980 and Prinz & Prinz, 1979) in addition to our own work and identify common denominators among them. The final discussion addresses the question of whether certain early milestones of language development (e.g., first true symbol, first two symbol combinations) are more easily achieved in the gestural than in the verbal modality.
Susan Goodwyn and Linda Acredolo, (1993). Symbolic gesture versus word: Is there a modality advantage for onset of symbol use? Child Development, 64, 688-701. Readily Available in Libraries.
The results reported in this article represent some of the earliest findings from our NIH-sponsored longitudinal study of the impact of purposefully encouraging babies to use symbolic gestures. The goal was to shed light on a hotly debated topic: the degree to which gestural symbols represent an easier entrée into symbolic communication.
Linda Acredolo, L. P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (1997). Furthering our understanding of what humans understand, Human Development, 40, 25-31.
Readily Available in Libraries.
Because we had done so much work in the area of children and symbolic gesturing, we were asked by the editor of this prestigious journal to write an article commenting on the other work presented in the issue – wonderful research done at Emory University on the use of gestures by chimpanzees. We were particularly thrilled when a picture of one of our own "Baby Signers" was used for the cover of the issue.
Susan Goodwyn and Linda Acredolo (1998). Encouraging symbolic gestures: Effects on the relationship between gesture and speech. In J. Iverson & S. Goldin-Meadows (Eds.) The nature and functions of gesture in children’s communication (pp. 61-73). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Readily Available in Libraries.
This invited chapter provided an opportunity for us to summarize our program of research on symbolic gesturing, from the earliest work with Kate to the results of our NIH-sponsored longitudinal study of the impact of gesturing on verbal development.
Linda Acredolo, Susan Goodwyn, Karen Horobin, and Yvonne Emmons (1999). The signs and sounds of early language development. In L. Balter & C. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Child Psychology: A Handbook of Contemporary Issues (pp. 116 – 139). New York: Psychology Press.
The editors of this volume asked us to do more than simply summarize our research findings. We were delighted to accept the challenge. Our goal in the chapter was to show how the results of our studies of symbolic gesturing shed light on important and still unresolved questions in language development: Why does comprehension of language generally precede production? Why is vocabulary growth so slow in the months following the first word? What accounts for the frequently observed phenomenon called the "vocabulary spurt?" What developments underlie the beginning of the "two word" stage? In the final section of the chapter we challenge researchers to begin using symbolic gesturing as a tool to explore other important developmental issues, issues that have traditionally had to await the onset of verbal language (e.g., longterm memory for events, concept development, abstract thinking, emotional knowledge). As an added bonus the chapter includes nearly a dozen vignettes drawn from our data and chosen to illustrate the Baby Signs® creativity we’ve seen babies use over and over. Available Online.
Susan Goodwyn, Linda Acredolo, and Catherine Brown (in press). Impact of symbolic gesturing on early language development. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior.
This is the article in which we present the most important findings from our NIH-sponsored longitudinal study of the impact on verbal development of purposefully encouraging infants to use symbolic gestures. Standardized tests of both receptive and expressive language development had been administered at 11, 15, 19, 24, 30, and 36 months to both an experimental group of babies (“Baby Signers”) and two control groups. Results demonstrated a clear advantage for the Baby Signs® babies, thereby laying to rest the most frequently voiced concern of parents – that using the Baby Signs® Program might hamper learning to talk. In fact, the good news is that Baby Signs® communication actually facilitates verbal language development.
Acredolo, L. P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (July 2000). The long-term impact of symbolic gesturing during infancy on IQ at age 8. Paper presented at the meetings of the International Society for Infant Studies, Brighton, UK.
The WISC-III was administered to subjects from our NIH-sponsored longitudinal study during the summer following completion of second grade. Much to our surprise and delight, the results indicated a significant 12 point advantage for the children who had been encouraged to use the Baby Signs® Program during their second year of life (Mean IQ = 114) over the children who had been in the Non-Intervention Control Group (Mean IQ= 102). The advantage held for both the Verbal and Performance Sub-scales of the WISC-III.
Brie Moore, Linda Acredolo, & Susan Goodwyn (April 2001). Symbolic gesturing and joint attention: Partners in facilitating verbal development. Paper presented at the Biennial Meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Using video data collected in our federally funded, longitudinal study, we looked to see whether the Baby Signs® experience stimulates development of the ability to actively direct an adult's attention to something in which the baby is interested. Called, "joint attention," this ability is known to be an important contributor to learning to talk. Much to our delight, the Baby Signs® babies were indeed found to engage in more joint attention episodes with their mothers than did non- Baby Signs® babies during laboratory play sessions at 19 and 24 months. Moreover, the effect held independently of linguistic skill, indicating that the Baby Signs® experience itself was a unique contributor to the joint attention scores. These data are important because they help explain why Baby Signs® babies tend to learn to talk earlier than non- Baby Signs® babies. The study may also help explain why the Baby Signs® experience has been found to have a positive effect on IQ at age 8.
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3.
China
Baby Swimming 'Contests' in Hospital
Promote Benefits of Early Water
Experiences on Child Development
* Notice: photos are presented as what they are....news photos...and are not intended indicate appropriateness or as an advisement of doing what is being shown in the photo. It is suggested that in considering implementing what is shown that you would do due diligence and consultant a medical professional who could provide advice and proper cautions to insure the health and safety of any child in any aquatic program.
Baby Swimming Contest in Xi'an
More than 20 babies of one to three months old participate in a baby swimming contest in the Fourth Hospital of Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, January 26, 2007. The event was a promotion on the benefits of programs toward the development of babies.
Natatorium for Newborns A nurse helps a baby do exercises after playing in a special swimming pool for babies in Nanning, capital of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 2, 2004. A natatorium for newborns has been built in Nanning jointly by hospitals for the protection of mothers' and children's health in Nanning and east China's Shanghai.
Nurses help a four-month baby play in a special swimming pool in Nanning, capital of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 2, 2004. A natatorium for newborns has been built in Nanning jointly by hospitals for the protection of mothers' and children's health in Nanning and east China's Shanghai.
A nurse helps a baby do exercises after playing in a special swimming pool for babies in Nanning, capital of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 2, 2004. A natatorium for newborns has been built in Nanning jointly by hospitals for the protection of mothers' and children's health in Nanning and east China's Shanghai.
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Raising a Child in China -
Li Ping of the Shanghai (China) Star writes...."At only eight months old, my son has been driving us toward bankruptcy. At the same time, he has kept us haunted by a sense of guilt. Sound impossible? The following is my story.
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A big ad is put up at the entrance of an infant commodities' shop in Shanghai.[newsphoto/file]
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Right after he was born, dozens of sales ladies from various gift companies miraculously appeared at the hospital to congratulate me and recommended their good quality, red painted eggs (usually used to celebrate the birth of a child). I paid 175 yuan (US$21) for 250 such eggs to hand out among our relatives and colleagues. A week later I went home and was immediately bombarded by hundreds of phone calls ranging from miscellaneous milk powders to numerous insurance policies.
I bought one sponsored by Shanghai Child Welfare Foundation and refused all the others. That was not the end, however. Since then our mailbox has been stuffed with tons of ads and journals focusing on infant commodities and training, with my son?s name and address on every one of them.
I felt very happy to see my boy cared for by so many people and greatly appreciated the journals as they taught me in detail how to be a qualified mother.
For example, I learned to hire a professional baby-sitter at 2,000 yuan (US$240) and to rear the boy in a most scientific way for the first month. I learned to make a 2,000 yuan (US$241.6) foetal hair brush, as well as 450 yuan (US$54) hand-and-foot prints in commemoration of the significant birth of my baby. And I learned to buy capsules for the development of his cranial nerves at 52-104 yuan (US$6-12) a month.
I could have attended certain infant training programmes with my son, but I did not have the strength. Then I found my son was not so bright as those trained infants.
Three months later, my baby was allowed to go out for sunlight and fresh air for two hours a day. Every time I took him out for a walk, sales people would spring up as if from nowhere, praised the little boy for his cuteness and then advised his going to a training centre for a second language. But how could he pick up a second language while he was unable to speak the first language?
"You will regret not signing up for our programme," they said. I did regret it, as quite a few infants in our neighborhood registered later at 5,000 yuan (US$602) and my parents accused me of irresponsibility.
To make up for that, I bought a series of "My First Book" for him to tear up. (It is said that we should let them "read" such books from their birth) and began to take him to swim once a week in a pool for about 15 minutes at 58 yuan (US$7) per swim. And I had to hire a taxi to get there and come back.
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A new-born baby in a pool in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province. It is popular to take babies to swim after it is reported that babies who have an early swimming experience show improved physical and psychological development.
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Magazines also taught me that a three-month-old baby was old enough to play with toys, so I began to squander money on all kinds of toys to develop his brain and body. Those toys, made of plastic, wood or cloth, were very expensive but fragile, and easily broken. So far I can not find a single intact toy.
When he was six months old, I was told by the doctor to adopt bottle-feeding, as beast milk is no more nutritious after six months. So I spent about 800 yuan (US$96) for milk powder, 100 yuan (US$12) for Niuchuru (a cow's first milk used to improve immunity), 100 yuan for fish liver oil and calcium, and 150 yuan (US$18) for supplementary food every month.
From then on, I stopped dressing him in hand-me-down clothes given by others and began to buy brand names so that he might grow with self-respect and self-confidence.
He has been to hospital quite a few times. He has never been seriously ill, but as soon as we heard him sneezing or sniffing or having a poor appetite or developing a skin rash, we rushed him to hospital. Doctors are very thoughtful and considerate, and every time they prescribed a large quantity of medicine. My home has been well stocked with mountains of drops, capsules and tablets ?enough that we may be able to run a drugstore for children.
Yesterday I met with a young mother in the neighborhood who told me that she was going to sign up for a baby training centre to get her baby educated in both English and social etiquette. Cost to her will be more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,204) a year. Upon hearing that, I immediately had an impulse to rob a bank.
Being the only child in a family, today's babies are really raised with gold."
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4.
Keep students & teachers safe
Prevent Recreational Water Illnesses
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 From the Center for Disease Control...
Swimming, one of the most popular activities in many countries, is a fun, active, and healthy way to spend leisure time. Every year, millions of people visit recreational water sites, such as swimming pools, water parks, hot tubs, lakes, rivers, or the ocean.
Over the past century, the use of modern disinfection systems in pools and environmental improvements in lakes, rivers, and oceans has improved the quality of recreational water. Despite this, there has been an increase over the past decade in the number of outbreaks of illness associated with swimming.
This Web site provides information for swimmers, pool operators, and public health professionals to improve the swimming experience by raising awareness about the spread of recreational water illnesses (RWIs). Practicing "Healthy Swimming" behaviors should reduce the risk of getting ill. Click on the links below to learn more about RWIs. ◙ if you are a facility operator click here
Healthy Swimming
Download swimmer brochure Adobe Acrobat Reader (1 MB)
En Español Adobe Acrobat Reader (1905 KB)
Animated multimedia brochure
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5.
Teaching & Learning
Kick Boards Distort Posture
& Impede Biomechanical Advantage
by Ally Todd
National Education Manager Swimming New Zealand Wellington NZ who will
be presenting on other topics at the 9th International WABC conference in
St Petersburg, USA Oct. 21-23, 2007 http://www.WABC2007.com
The use of Kick Boards in Learn to Swim was discussed in ‘Chapter One’ as were a few ideas for ‘weaning’ swim teachers off kick boards. It is now time to ‘take the plunge’ and realize that any floatation device in the out stretched hand of a swimmer not only plays into the hands of the primitive brain, but
inhibits the critical skill of aquatic balance.
Balancing Opportunities
In order to balance in the water it is essential that a ‘tall’ posture is developed the core of the body is ‘engaged’ (tone not tension) and the top end of the lungs are pressed into the water in order to help to lever the hips and legs to the surface.
With a floatation device held in the hand extended above the head, any pressure on this tool by the swimmer’s hand actively levers the lungs up to the surface negating any levering of the legs. This increases the angle of the body in the water resulting in increased resistance.
Alternatively the swimmer might use the body correctly and press the lungs into the water, but this generally results in a bent elbow and the learner holding the floatation device above the water, Unfortunately, there are a two further negative possibilities.
Either the shoulder joint is put into a position of impingement as it jams against the ear resulting eventually in pain in the joint, or secondly, the spine ‘gives’ at the waist or neck to reduce pressure in the shoulder, this distorts the posture and increases resistance.
Why we must pay attention to core stability and balance
Human brain development texts detailing the location of touch or somatosensory regions in the brain describe ‘mind maps’ which, far from accurately mimicking the surface of the body; are strikingly distorted. The more sensitive regions of the body such as lips mouth, face and hands take up a disproportionate share of cortical space, whereas large parts of the body such as the trunk and legs cover comparatively little cortical ground. (1)
With the hands, feet and mouth taking up over 70% of sensory feedback to the brain, we human beings are severely handicapped in sensory awareness of the core of our body.
Any stimulus in the hand such as holding a floating device only increases this bias and again hinders our ability to learn control in the core and ultimately balance in the water.
Conscious attention must be paid to improve our awareness and control of our body core. When this occurs repeatedly over time the mind map for that particular area of the body literally ‘grows’ in the brain, and we become physically more intelligent in the use of our core.
Giving a kick board (or any floating device) to a learner swimmer is akin to giving balancing poles to a learner skier to hold in their hands to press on to the snow should they feel off balance. In this scenario, the posture and balance they will learn during the learning process would have no relation to what is required in the real experience of skiing the slopes. This is also true of learning to swim with balancing tools in the hands, as without the skill of core body balance the arms and legs will not be able to be used for maximum effect in propulsion. When swim teachers report “they (the swimmer) really need the float to practice A, B or C”, what they are really saying is “I’d like to skip a couple of stages to make it look like they are ready to learn A, B, or C”.
The consequences of loss of balance
Because loosing your balance as a swimmer in the pool does not have the same consequences as loosing your balance as a skier on the learner slopes of the mountain, it has almost become accepted that balance when learning to swim is not ‘critical’, and therefore the focus is often directed elsewhere. As the ‘landing’ from a ‘fall’ in the water is always a soft one, the learners could be forgiven for not paying attention to this area, swim teachers, however, can not. Balance is of utmost importance if you are interested in efficiency and ultimately velocity.
If not taught during the learning process, balance can be even more difficult to acquire and ‘tune into’ at later stages of skill development. Increasing repetitions with focus on the arms and legs only serves to sharpen the senses in the extremities and make the core body awareness of the swimmer even more retarded. If balance in the water is coordinated solely from the core of the body this frees up the arms and legs to be used solely for propulsion. If, however, this critical skill of aquatic balance requires an element of adjustment from the hands or feet, the long term potential for efficiency, effectiveness and ultimate velocity potential for the swimmer can never be realised.
How we teach is crucial
Mechanical advantage within the ‘arm strides’ of any swimming stroke can only be maximized if the arm is at an advantageous angle to the body and, the sensory intelligence of the swimmers body is tuned finely enough, to make the most of the swimmer’s body position. In other words, a swimmer could be in a perfect position in the water and only feel the connection of the arm on the water but not the connection of the lower abdominals to the arm which in turn feels traction in the water. If swim teachers are encouraged to use ‘awareness questions’ rather than ‘position instruction’ to facilitate learning these connections would more readily be learned. For example “Can you feel your tummy working to keep you ‘long and straight’ as you slide your long body past your hands?” Rather than “Put your hand in the water out in front and pull, with your fingers pointing towards the bottom of the pool”
Kick Boards Stress the Shoulder Joint Outside of a Functional Plane
Kicking or swimming with the hands holding a kick board out in front is the equivalent of holding the arms straight above the head holding a moving bar when learning to ice skate.
Why do we use kick boards in the hands of young learners?
If the reason for the kick board in the hand is to assist with balance, would it not be better to position the floatation device around the belly button ? This would provide mechanical advantage in the shoulder joint, and then focus on the body core would allow correct posture and ‘lean’ to be achieved. Asking anyone, (let alone a small child) to balance them selves using their hands held vertically above their head not only puts them at a mechanical disadvantage, but any pressure on the hand with the shoulder in this position could easily create pain in the shoulder.
If the reason for kick boards being held out in front in the hand is because ‘we have always done it this way and we’ve had plenty of success’, you might want to have a discussion about how you are measuring ‘success’ and is the critical skill of balance in the body core part of those measures? Have you thought about what would be the BEST way and not just what we think is ‘working’ at the moment.
If the reason is the ‘kick board shows the learner where to put their hand in the water’ … it doesn’t. This would be akin to holding a stick out in front to show you where to place your feet when you walk! This would not only reduce the smooth, and potentially athletic walking action, but focus attention on something which is a very natural movement. The arms in freestyle work best if they are used like the legs are used when being athletic on land in walking and running. The child does not think about, nor ‘place’ their feet in the ‘right’ place on the ground, the leg simply swings from the centre of the body and where it lands is where the child gets traction to travel their body past. In the same way the best swimmers in the world swing their arms into the water (not onto the surface) where they
can immediately get traction and mechanical advantage as their hand is relatively deep in the water, and the body rotation to the side, gives maximum mechanical advantage for athletic movement of the body past the hand.
Try explaining the concept of holding on to the water and sliding your body by, to the small children in your class. You will be talking about ‘feelings’ not ‘doings’ and you will notice your learners become smoother in their movements, and generally move with less effort. It is only once the body can relax and move free of tension that athletic capacity can be met.
To the kick board manufacturers … I am not suggesting that kick boards should not be used at all …. far from it, only that they should not be used held out above the head in the hands of swimmers. Many body postural drills are explained by Bill Boomer in his series of videos on Aquatic Posture, Line, and Balance and many use a kick board under the body on both back and front. These drills not only increase attention to the core but also increase awareness and control of the core. Several kick boards on top of each other can make these exercises more demanding as the core muscles have to work harder to maintain balance.
As mentioned in Chapter One the original inspiration for my continued thoughts in this area are the result of hearing Bill Boomer talk at the World Coaches Conference in 1996.
Since then I have been privileged to spend many weeks in his company and that of evolutionary coaching expert Milton Nelms who continually inspires me to deepen my thoughts on the future possibilities for human movement in water. My applications to learn to swim would not be possible without their generosity in the sharing of thoughts on swimming velocity.
Good luck with the re-positioning of your kick boards!
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6.
Child Born full term? preterm?
Makes a Difference in Early Infant Movement
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Doctoral candidates Jill C. Heathcock (left) and Michele A. Lobo (center) with baby Edward and his mom, Susan (right) |
In June of 2006 the American Physical Therapy Association named researchers from the University of Delaware winners of the Dorothy Briggs Memorial Scientific Inquiry Award, which recognizes student members of the organization who have published an outstanding article in the journal Physical Therapy.
Authors of the article, which offers new data on learning impairments in preterm infants, are doctoral candidates Jill C. Heathcock and Michele A. Lobo, as well as Anjana N. Bhat, a Ph.D. The three work in UD's Infant Motor Behavior Laboratory under the direction of James C. “Cole” Galloway, assistant professor of physical therapy.
The article concerns the differences in motor learning of very young infants born full term and preterm. Specifically, the researchers observed how 90-day-old full term and preterm infants kicked to move a toy mobile. The mobile was tethered to one ankle while the infants reclined in their home crib. The more the infants kicked using the tethered leg, the more the mobile moved.
The UD researchers found that infants born preterm differ from full term infants in both their basic kicking, as well as how they use their kicks to learn to move the mobile. Full term infants learned to make the mobile move within one session, whereas preterm infants did not learn despite having 12 sessions over six weeks. In addition, full term infants learned that to move the mobile, all that was needed was right leg kicking. Preterm infants kicked both legs the same amount throughout the study.
The researchers concluded that the full term infants adapted their kicking to move the mobile and retained the adaptation in their short-term memory, while the preterm infants showed no adaptation, suggesting a potential impairment of early motor learning or purposeful leg control. This lack of control, they believe, may reflect a general decrease in the ability of infants born preterm to use their limb movements to interact with their environment.
As such, the mobile paradigm may be clinically useful in the early assessment and intervention of infants born preterm and at risk for future impairment as researchers believe movement in early infancy has a key role in motor learning and motor skill acquisition.
“These findings are important because impairments in early kicking behavior when a baby is 90 days of age may signal future delays in functional skills such as walking when the child is a year or older,” Lobo said.
“Walking is a milestone everyone can see,” Heathcock said. “The long term goal is to use our findings for the prediction of future developmental delays so that we can assess the infants for treatment and find ways to help infants and their families. Preterm babies are born at higher risk for developmental delays and doctors and therapists often monitor them. We hope that by identifying potential delays in the first months of life, appropriate treatment can be provided.”
“The earlier we can provide appropriate intervention, the better children and their families will do in the long run,” Lobo said. “That's the goal, to determine who is in need of additional assistance.” Heathcock said the award “is really exciting for the lab, the Department of Physical Therapy, and the Biomechanics and Movement Science graduate program” and she credited the department for its interest in pediatric physical therapy.
“This lab is unique,” Lobo said. “Not many physical therapy labs in the country are focused on early infant movement.”
Galloway said the research team's findings are leading the way to an exciting new project that will couple the mobile paradigm with advanced brain imaging, working in cooperation with Christiana Care and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. They plan to generate three-dimensional images of brain structures in conjunction with the paradigm to better understand motor skill impairments.
The final step is to take these findings and work with clinicians and educators to provide advanced, family-centered intervention for babies with special needs in clinics such as UD's Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic, Galloway said.
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Editor's note: ahead of the wave....in about 1990 baby swim professor Jose Fontanelli from Brazil spoke of asking mothers about their pregnancy's with the idea that there may be factors that would be good for a swim teacher to know as they work with parents and babies.
Interesting Tidbits
The man who founded Honda, Soichiro Honda, as a boy wanting to learn how to swim, got the idea of swallowing small fish whole and jumping in the water while it was still flapping around inside his stomach. Despite his miscalculation Honda did later learn to swim, became a mechanical engineer and his company a leader in technology especially in the area of engine development. (kick, kick, kick!)
According to the Discovery Channel (USA television) ... gorillas are remarkable creatures, with almost as many personality quirks as humans. One such is that gorillas cannot swim, and are deathly afraid of water. They will not go in a river, lake, or even a small wading pool though they have been known to wade in very shallow water. The Channel said the strange thing is, gorillas in captivity are able to learn how to swim. Scientists have found no genetic reason that gorillas cannot float or swim in water much as humans do. It seems, then, that the reason gorillas cannot swim is because they know they can’t swim. Gorillas and orangutans have a very high center of gravity. Given the choice, they will go to great lengths to avoid putting themselves in a position where they would need to swim.
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Babies & Children
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