Genre: Forum

DS 6 learning to swim and not getting on too well even in 1:1 Special Needs class. The teacher was feeling bad for him that she was having such resistance to him swimming. He can adopt the correct positions, It's just his proprioception needs, easily put him back to a different one for learning the movements for swimming, after the teacher has asked.He just gets himself in other positions which are not helpful for swimming. I think the recommendation of swimming vest or belt should be tried so that his body has a reminder of where he is which I think proprioception essentially is. He can learn the strokes and he can move himself through the water it just seems his altered sense of balance is putting him off. The OT has said that these children can learn to become desensitised which I am hoping with the help of a vest or weights.He might be better being taught by having someone who will 'place' his limbs for him so that he can learn by the feeling too. It sounds as if it will take time refocusing him. Teacher gets into pool with him as well as I do too to give him confidence to distract him from his echoey hearing senses too. As well as anxiety.I can see that it may be quite difficult for him to 'translate' verbal instruction to a movement pattern. Part of the reason I get in too is to translate what the teacher is saying to a more digestible form for him as she doesn't know him that well yet. He is much better on his back than his front. If Proprioception is out of kilter would it affect him to the extent of virtually stopping him from learning to swim. It's probably not just this but a whole host of things of which I don't have the foggiest. i think, stick at it! I mean its a bit like having therapy isn't it, can take a good while to reap the benefits fully, but you stick at it don't you. I don't think his proprioception difficulties will stop him from learning to swim...i think he is getting many many more benefits from learning to swim then to try and manage just his proprioception difficulties... It is desensitising him, I mean the water stops him from being as tactile defensiveness, to tolerate being touched, maybe to the levels where he would be able to wear different textures (if he does have problems with textures of clothes). It also helps with auditory processing difficulties, getting used to noise levels, how to concentrate on your voice rather than getting lost in the echoie environment IYKWIM. It will also help with the whole doing more than one movement at the same time, which alot of our children have many difficulties with. And it will do wonders for his self esteem and self confidence. Swimming is a fantastic therapeutic activity for any of our children! As far as I know with proprioception difficulties, I'm not sure that it ever goes completely...I mean my 18yr old still has balancing difficulties, so does my 17yr old dd - shes terrible with her proprioception difficulties, has very poor balancing! You should see her on the Wii Fit Its constantly telling her to balance properly, and shes constantly screaming at it "I AM!!!!!!!!!!" I won't even tell you about the whole concept of riding bikes She has cost me a small fortune from crashing into cars and scratching them. There are other things you can do to help with proprioception difficulties, my youngest does Shake and Wake exercises every morning, which helps alot. They follow the Lazytown Shake and Wake routine which can be found here: If you want to know more about Shake and Wake and proprioception, I did a bit of a page about it once, for another member, I can copy and paste it if you would like to read it? Or send me a pm? Our son has been having swimming lessons since he was about 5, he is now nearly 12 and although his technique is good on front crawl and backstroke, breaststroke was a whole lot different, he could do it well enough underwater but not on top of the water, but earlier this year it just sort of came together. From a personal point of view i think there are several factors which make it harder for kids with an ASD to learn to swim and with  G it was 1) the noise in the pool, 2) the amount of people there, 3) the inability to do more than 1 thing at a time, 4) coordination and proprioception difficulties. And it was actually number 3 that caused most problems. For instance if he concentrated on what his arms were supposed to be doing his legs would stop and vice versa, if the instructor talked to him while he was swimming he either ignored her or couldn't keep his arms and legs going at the same time. It has taken G far longer than most NT children to reach his current ability but he has persevered and actually  enjoys it. I would say continue with it because the pro's will far outweigh the con's, eventually. Just a thought but what about concentrating on one aspect of a stroke for a period of time, ie kicking the feet while holding on to a float until it becomes second nature and then progressing on to what the arms are meant to do.