Smart Kids and backyard pools

While the intelligence boost delivered through music learning is often touted, it turns out swimming can give your kids an intellectual and developmental boost as well.

While many parents want their kids to learn to swim as a safety measure, getting your children into the pool can help them in other ways. An Australian study conducted by the Griffith Institute for Educational Research followed more than 7000 kids under the age of 5 and found that the skills learned early in the pool translate into real world application.

The study found that the younger the child began swimming lessons and the longer they continued, the greater the benefits. Benefits come not only in the form of reaching physical developmental milestones early, but also those involving language and mathematics. Swimming helps with coordination and visual motor-skill development, but also with more intellectual skills, like counting or following verbal instructions. Researchers say that the strong correlation between language and action that are inherent in swimming lessons are crucial to the development of both cognitive and motor skills. In fact, the researchers found that kids started making the connection between language and action before the children were old enough to be able to verbally communicate.

So how early is too early to get your baby in the pool? There are programs that start as young as 4 months-old, but before you enroll in the first program your child is eligible for, check the program’s lesson-plan and get info about the instructor. If possible, arrange a visit or intro class so you can decide if you are comfortable with your child in the class and with the things your little one will be doing in the water