What causes fear of the water?

Some of the most common causes of early fear of the water have to do with the way parents relate to their children in and around water.

Here are the causes of fear of the water and how to resolve it:

1. Being forced into water activities before being properly prepared.

 From our previous blog, All of Your Attention, All the Time, we discussed how to present water to your child as his/her second nature. Let him/her meet water as her friend and nothing to be scared about.

2. Being reared by parents who are afraid of the water and have either knowingly or unknowingly communicated this fear to their children.

Avoid putting your own fear of water in your child’s mind. As a parent, you might not know how to swim but, the more you discuss the things that might happen during swimming lessons the more your child to be afraid of water.

 3. Being involved in or witnessing a traumatic water accident.

This could be a one in a million experience, however, it is not bad to take precautionary actions to prevent it from happening, so hey enrol in Swim for Your Life.

 4. Fear of the water is acquired over time.

The older a child is when first beginning a learn-to-swim program, the more challenging his or her fear will likely be to overcome.

Remember, learning to swim is a life-saving skill – the best day to start lessons, was yesterday!