Aquatic Competencies and Drowning Prevention in Children 2–4 Years: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Aquatic competencies have been proposed as a prevention strategy for children aged 2–4 years who are over-represented in drowning statistics. For this recommendation to be made, exploration of the connection between aquatic competencies and drowning is required. This review critically analyzed studies exploring aquatic competencies and their effect on drowning and/or injury severity in children 2–4 years. English language peer-reviewed literature up to 31 July 2019 was searched and the PRISMA process utilized. Data were extracted from twelve studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Findings from this study included that aquatic competencies were not found to increase risk of drowning and demonstrated children aged 2–4 years are capable of developing age-appropriate aquatic competencies. Age-appropriate aquatic competencies extracted were propulsion/locomotion, flotation/buoyancy, water familiarization, submersion and water exits. The acquisition of these competencies holds benefit for the prevention of drowning. No evidence was found relating to injury severity. There was limited exploration of the relationship between aquatic competencies attainment and age-related developmental readiness. The review highlights the need for consistent measures of exposure, clarity around skills acquisition, better age-specific data (2 years vs. 3 years vs. 4 years), studies with larger sample sizes, further exploration of the dose–response relationship and consistent skill level testing across age groups. Further investigation is required to establish the efficacy of aquatic competencies as a drowning prevention intervention, as well as exploring the relationship between aquatic competencies and age-related developmental readiness. In conclusion, early evidence suggests aquatic competencies can help to reduce drowning.

Effects of Baby Swimming on Motor and Cognitive Development: A Pilot Trial

“…Scientific data collected in the past century (McGraw, 1939) as well as in more recent years (Sigmundsson & Hopkins, 2010) have demonstrated health benefits to infants’ physical activity in water that range from cardiovascular adaptations (Costa et al, 2016) to motor and social-affective interaction development (Martins et al, 2020). A major focus is on whether early aquatic experiences may reduce the drowning risk (Brenner & Egner, 2008; Pedroso et al, 2012; Taylor et al, 2020) and on what may be the minimum age for initiating aquatic experiences targeted to reduce drowning risk and increase basic aquatic skills proficiency (Langendorfer, 2019). Past studies also investigated the influence of baby swimming on the development of swimming skills (Erbaugh, 1986) and cognitive control (Zelazo & Weiss, 2006).…”

Anthropometric and Motor Competence Classifiers of Swimming Ability in Preschool Children—A Pilot Study

“…Swimming ability, as a narrower term of aquatic competence [ 1 ], has been acknowledged a life-saving skill [ 2 , 3 ], since drowning is one of the most common causes of unintentional injury deaths throughout the world [ 4 ]. As the self-propulsion of a person through water, swimming is a physical activity used in sports performance, recreation, and therapy.…”

Differences between Young Children’s Actual, Self-perceived and Parent-perceived Aquatic Skills

“…Additionally, it is important to promote children’s safe attitude and knowledge of possible dangers in, on and around the water. Becoming water competent (i.e., having the necessary physical/motor, cognitive and affective abilities) benefits children’s water safety in pursuance of drowning prevention (Langendorfer & Bruya, 1995; Stallman et al., 2017; Szpilman et al., 2020; Taylor et al., 2020). With these motives in mind, the present study focused primarily on children’s physical/motor skill competence in an aquatic environment, using both objective and subjective methods to provide direct and indirect assessments (Bardid et al., 2019) of their actual and perceived aquatic skill levels, respectively.…”