How to Teach Your Baby to Swim: From Birth to Age Six

by Douglas Doman

Teaching an infant or toddler to swim is not only a matter of safety, but also a great way to stimulate physical coordination, concentration, and intelligence―all the while making your child happier, healthier, and more self-confident. Based on the revolutionary learning principles developed at The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, How To Teach Your Baby To Swim pairs 160 photographs with detailed instructions for teaching your child to dive, float, and swim.

Genres: Self Help, Parenting

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2006

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked this book. Doman believes babies are smart. They learn a language and how to eat and walk and crawl in a few short years. He believes that swimming can come naturally to infants and you can teach them certain things according to their natural instincts. There's a certain age where babies have a natural instinct to grasp onto something when their palm is touched- he mentions using this time to show them how to hold onto the edge of a tub which can later transfer into holding onto the edge of a pool. I did not use the exact program but I did use principles from it with George. Step one in teaching your baby to swim (as best as I can remember it) is to teach them to love the water. We did that with George. We used the techniques to help him learn how to start floating on his back. He got to the point where we only needed to support his head with one finger and he could do the rest- but then of course he learned to sit up and didn't want to be on his back- he wanted to be upright. We used bath time (and the fact that they are "lighter" in water) as a means to strengthen his legs. He walked at a pretty early age and was sitting up by himself early too- I credit these things to both George's desire to be upright and be independent but also to using bath time to help him strengthen all these muscles. Doman also has a Teach Your Baby to Read and Teach Your Baby Math and Teach Your Baby Encyclopedic Information. I want to read these books too. I know the gist of the math program and I'm interested in trying it even though I'm not as sold on that idea. Encyclopedic information- I started using one of the principles with George- we had a Big Book of Animals by National Geographic and I would show him the picture, read a few facts and then we'd look up youtube videos of the animal (either doing animal noises, cute baby things or something entertaining or unique to the animal- for example and elephant using his trunk to spray water, but we also watched the elephant marching song from Jungle Book). Anyways, LOVE Doman's Teach Your Baby to Swim book. We taught George to love to swim and even though he was not swimming yet at 17 months, he was getting close and we weren't strictly doing the program, just implementing certain principles I happened to remember without any notes as guidance.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas on how to teach your baby/toddler to swim. It shows you that you can teach them in the bath to become comfortable in the water and hold their breath. It's amazing to see little babies swimming in the water. Great tips and great summer read, especially if your kids aren't in swimming lessons yet.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the pics and some of the strategies, but I like the Francois picture book. This book was more about how to progress using a specific strategy. Not many options or big picture how tos. I did like how they encouraged to start at birth. And to keep it fun.

[Chloe Crismon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful resource of child development and independence. I had heard previously that infants instinctually knew how to swim but this book explains that principle further. Read this book not only for the knowledge to teach your children swimming from day one, but also the safety that comes with doing so. The first things infants are taught is self preservation by floating on their back. That is the most wonderful, life saving practice to teach a child!

[Kathy Feera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for young learners! Will consult it in the future