Believe it or not, crying doesn’t have to be a part of swimming lessons. Learning to swim can (and hopefully does) turn out to be a positive experience for children.

There are both aggressive and gentle swimming programs out there so before enrolling your children, make sure that you’ve chosen the type program that will help them to learn in the way that is best for swim skills acquisition and long term love of swimming. Aggressive program tactics often contribute to what causes the crying and negative emotions. None of this aggression is necessary to teach children to swim. Fortunately there are gentle, child-based programs out there that do not base teaching on aggressive tactics but approach learning skills when children are comfortable and ready to accept them. This leads to an experience that is non-stressed and has the greatest potential for setting children on a positive course for swimming for the rest of their lives.