Roanoke Child Photographer l Swimming the ISR Way

It’s pool season, and last week my son completed his yearly refresher lessons with his ISR instructor. ISR (Infant Swimming Resource) teaches self-rescue and aquatic survival lessons for babies as young as six months old. This isn’t photography related in any way, but I always like to share the benefits of this program in case someone out there finds it useful or potentially life-saving.

ISR preaches to have as many safety measures as possible between your child and the water—including supervision, pool fences, alarms, etc. but this program also teaches children how to rescue themselves in the event of an accidental entry into water. These are not traditional swim lessons. Instead, they teach children over 1 year to swim underwater with their eyes open for a few feet in search of a ledge, human hand or some other way out of the water. If the child can’t locate a way out of the water they are trained to float on their backs to get air. After they have caught their breath the child will go back to swimming underwater looking for a helping hand or pool steps/ledge. This process is repeated over and over until the child can reach safety. For children that are under 1 year, I believe only the survival float is taught. I am not affiliated with ISR so I can’t speak to the precise skills children learn, but this is just my summary of what happens.

Lessons go for 6 weeks the first year of instruction—10 minutes every single weekday day. Then in subsequent years your child usually only needs a refresher course of 2 weeks. It is a HUGE time commitment, but definitely worth it in my opinion if you have a pool or live by a creek or pond where knowing what to do in the event of an accident is life-saving.

The videos I am posting are from some of my son’s graduation test during his refresher course this year (2015). During this test he had to wear full winter clothing (pants, long sleeve shirt and jacket with hoodie and shoes) to make sure that if he fell into the water during the winter months he is used to swimming in clothing. He also did a similar test in summer clothing, and of course tested in a regular swim suit as well. I know some of the videos can be a little cringe-worthy because you are watching a young child in the pool in full clothing and that is really shocking to our senses. Please rest assured that he was working with a trained professional instructor who was always at arms-length and that both myself and/or my husband were always in attendance at his lessons.

Having done ISR my son is a little fish in the water, and we were able to enjoy the water without floaties and over devices when he was only 18 months old. Plus, I know he is proud of myself and gets a great deal of self-confidence from having gone through the process to learn these skills.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about ISR, checkout their website: https://www.infantswim.com/

I’m also happy to answer any questions about our personal experience if you email me at: heather@hparkerphotography.com

H. Parker Photography specializes in newborn, baby and child photography in Trophy Club, Texas and surrounding areas including but not limited to Dallas, Ft Worth and Roanoke