Ideally, visually impaired children will have been encouraged to play in the bath, paddle in a pool, feel the waves coming up the beach to their feet, have had a boat trip in different kinds of boats, sailed their toy boats like all children do. These experiences are so important as they teach the child about water, and crucially about water safety.
From these early beginnings, hopefully, a visually impaired child can move on, in due course, to swimming lessons. And although the instructor does not wish to install fear, various sensible ground rules need to be understood, right from the start; so that the visually impaired pupil feels secure. These will differ with circumstances and should be carefully explained to all the children and the helpers so that there is a common understanding.
As for everyone wanting to swim it is important that the pupil feels secure. The teacher needs to lead carefully from a known situation to an unknown and depending on the age of the pupil so graduate their experience and rate of progression.
For the young child learning to swim can become a shared experience with other members of the class; here again a small group would be helpful and possibly a quietish group. Very often the echoing noises within the pool are strange to young visually impaired children who depend on their sense of hearing so much more than other children. Others will thoroughly enjoy making noise and experimenting with echoes, splashing around and feeling the water spraying up into their faces.
The teacher needs to recognise the needs of a visually impaired youngster who will need to know the width of a pool by walking across it on the side, then in the water before any thought is given to swimming. Later on the teacher may be saying, "You've swum one quarter of a width", or, "Now walk back to me and see how many steps it takes you", or, "How many steps does it take you to complete the width when you've put your feet down?" All these projects lead to giving swimmers an idea of their progress across the pool. They can then begin to measure their progress as they are told they've now swum half a width, or, the number of steps increases as they walk back to the side, or, decreases as they walk on to the other side of the pool.
As long as the teacher is prepared to give time to explain, to show the strokes within the learners' range of vision, or indeed move the limbs of the pupil then it is possible for all the strokes to be taught as well as other skills such as treading water, diving, surface diving, swimming underwater and turns for racing. Providing these skills are not banned for medical reasons.
When trying to improve a visually impaired swimmer's technique there are several factors to bear in mind.
All children should experience swimming in clothes, swimming with shoes on, falling out of a canoe, climbing on and off tyres, jumping off boards, diving, somersaulting, simple water safety exercises and some synchronised swimming. The more varied the pupils' experiences in the water the better equipped and confident they will be in future.
Swimmers need the chance to compete on equal terms, to measure their ability against others, and some welcome the opportunity to train for national and international competition with all the demands and discipline that this brings to their life.
All people with a visual impairment can enjoy being in the water once they are confident. Building confidence may take more time but please do not deny them the opportunity that others have. Many will also enjoy other water sports as a result of feeling confident in the water. Remember that even though they have a visual impairment they are first and foremost people who have the same likes and dislikes as everyone else. Yes, they do often need individual help and attention and explanation; Yes, they do take more time to 'catch on'; but they will be very grateful for your help if you have opened up new horizons for them and helped them to become confident.
Enjoy the challenge of teaching a visually impaired pupil as much as they will enjoy learning.
