Swimming Through the Senses: How the Pool Supports Development
As pediatric occupational therapists, we understand that children learn best through meaningful play and movement. Swimming provides a unique environment where children can play and enjoy the water while also developing the foundational sensory and motor skills. The pool offers opportunities that are unique and provides a valuable, alternative setting to support a child's overall development.
One of the key principles in occupational therapy is sensory integration—the brain's ability to receive, interpret, organize, and respond to information from the senses. Efficient sensory processing allows children to move with coordination and body awareness, regulate their emotions, learn new motor skills, and develop focus and attention. Water naturally stimulates multiple sensory systems simultaneously. Children experience tactile input from the water against their skin, proprioceptive input through resistance and hydrostatic pressure, vestibular input during changes in body position and movement, and visual and auditory input as they interact with their surroundings including under the water. The brain is continually integrating this sensory information while the child learns to move, balance, solve problems, and adapt to new challenges.
Exploration of Movement: Water provides children with the opportunity to move with less gravity, freeing up their movements. Children can either “trudge” through the water and “dolphin” dive all the while experiences with changes in balance and processing of movement. Children move slower in water, allowing them to experience movement at a slower, more thoughtful pace.
Sensory Processing: Swimming and water play allow for a large variety of sensory experiences including tactile, visual, auditory, vestibular and proprioceptive input.
what makes water unique?
Water provides gentle, even pressure around the entire body through its natural hydrostatic pressure. This constant proprioceptive input enhances body awareness, improves postural stability and coordination, and often has a calming, organizing effect on the nervous system. Many children feel more grounded and regulated in the water because of this "whole-body hug," allowing them to better attend, engage, and participate in learning and therapeutic activities.
Floating reduces the effects of gravity, allowing children greater freedom of movement while decreasing stress on joints and muscles. Children can practice movements that may be challenging on land, build confidence in their bodies, and develop strength, balance, and postural control in a supportive environment. Buoyancy also encourages movement exploration, helping children experiment with different motor patterns without fear of falling.
Water resistance - The water helps support your child's body, reducing the effects of gravity and making movement feel easier while placing less stress on their joints and muscles. This allows children to practice skills that may be difficult on land, helping them build strength, balance, coordination, and confidence. Because the water provides a safe and supportive environment, children are often more willing to try new movements, explore different ways of moving, and practice skills without worrying about falling.
Suggestions for swimming:
Getting Started:
Practice swimming in the bathtub or hot tub.
Allow the child to explore the water before swim lessons.
Make the water and swimming seem fun with toys.
Warm-up activities before swimming.
Moving from Fear to Fun:
Swimming and being in water can lead to many children feeling scared or unsure.
Suggestions include providing safe and secure handling of the child (especially when moving them through the water).
Allow the child to explore on their own.
Work on movement and warm-up exercises outside of the pool (or in shallow water) before moving into the deep water.
Body Awareness Activities
Jumping and hopping activities
Rock n rolls (on their backs)
Starfish reflex exercise
Rolling on the ground
Snow angels on the ground
development of skills through swimming
Swimming supports the development of many foundational skills, including:
Gross motor coordination and postural control
Bilateral coordination
Motor planning (praxis)
Core strength and endurance
Balance and dynamic stability
Body awareness and spatial orientation
Sensory processing and sensory integration
Visual tracking and visual-motor integration
Attention and executive functioning
Breath support
Emotional regulation and self-regulation
Confidence, resilience, and independence
Social communication, turn-taking, and cooperative play
Other Things to consider
Whether it is the excitement and heightened sensory input while swimming . . . or the lack of gravity while in water, some children may become dysregulated after an afternoon spent swimming. Although I love it when children spend a lot of time in the water . . . I have noticed some children may need more grounding/physical play in addition to swimming. In this case, I recommend following swimming with a slowing down activity such as a snack or a quiet game. I also recommend having physical time outside of the pool such as stopping by the park on the way home to do some climbing, digging in the sand and monkey bars. For some children, spending numerous hours out of the day floating in the water may not be grounding enough for some children who seek higher intensity physical input.
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