Traditionally, lifeguards are taught to jump into action when an infant is struggling in the pool.  This, however, is not the protocol at an infant survival swimming program offered at the Center of Clayton, which teaches infants as young as six-months-old to swim.

The goal of the program, according to Master Instructor Chuck Teasley, “is to prepare children to survive an unseen accident in the water.”

“We want them to have the self-rescue skills necessary to save themselves,” Teasley said.

Not your conventional swim class, the basis for the Infant Swimming Resource curriculum is a behavioral learning theory known as operant conditioning, a method where tasks are presented in an order from least to most difficult.  Teasley called it the “most child-friendly affirmative approach to shaping swimming behavior.”

“A lot of those diaper dips teach those kids that the water is a warm friendly place to play,” Teasley said. “I don’t want my kids thinking that the water is a fun place when they don’t have any skills, because that’s how they’d end up at the bottom of the pool.”

Danielle Stahl, a parent with two kids enrolled in the program, praised the lessons.

“I used to be a nurse in the pediatric ICU so I’ve seen what can happen to a kid who is in the water without these lessons,” Stahl said.  “Especially with two little boys who just run towards the water the minute they see it, it’s comforting to know that if they were to fall in and I wasn’t there, they would be okay.”

According to Teasley, 80 percent of the kids that drown are within a foot from the wall.  Thus, a central goal of his curriculum is to teach the infant to be able to swim those few extra feet to safety.  At least six of the over 5000 infants Teasley has instructed have used their newly-learned skills to save their own lives.

CHS students have experienced the program firsthand while working as lifeguards. Senior lifeguard Haley Wartman has spent many mornings on duty watching Teasley in the water.

“It scares me,” Wartman said. “I constantly feel on edge like I might have to jump in at any second.  Some of these kids can’t even walk and yet they are being taught to float.”

However, despite the stress of watching Teasley “flip the kids over so they are face first in the water and then watching the kids struggle to turn themselves over,” Wartman said that the lessons were a “good safety precaution.”

Teasley echoed Wartman’s comments.

“When the lifeguards first see it they are jumping out of the chairs and getting ready to jump in the water, but after a couple minutes of seeing what the kids are capable of doing, they think the program rocks,” Teasley said.
While some lifeguards are apprehensive about the program, parents are rarely flustered.

“When they first start, I guess there is some anxiety from the parents, but I have given them an opportunity to understand what I am going to do,” Teasley said.

Stahl agreed that the lessons did not bother her, because she knew they were in the best interest of her kids.

The program lasts 10 minutes per day, five days a week for around six weeks, depending on the success of the child in learning survival skills.

“I definitely recommend the swim instruction to other parents,” Stahl said. “Every kid should have to go through this – it should be a requirement.”