The Influence of Equipment and Environment on Children and Young Adults Learning Aquatic Skills

Abstract

Learning aquatic skills is an important component of developing physical literacy in children. Aquatic skills such as floating, swimming and safe entry/exit promote engagement in different water environments and may help preserve lives in an emergency. This scoping review was conducted to evaluate the influence of task constraints (i.e., equipment) and environmental constraints (i.e., physical and social) on how children learn foundational aquatic skills. In developed countries, children are typically taught in swimming pools under direct supervision. It is also not uncommon to see children and infants learning to swim with assistive equipment (e.g., buoyancy aids). However, perhaps surprisingly, the evidence on how and where children learn aquatic skills does not uniformly promote such practices. For example, the use of flotation devices has not been proven to aid skill learning. Some researchers have advocated that children should learn aquatic skills whilst wearing outdoor clothing. One benefit of children wearing clothing is an increased capacity to practice in colder water (such as the ocean, rivers, or lakes). Overall, whilst practitioners often use equipment for various reasons it seems that not all equipment is equally useful in promoting the acquisition of aquatic skills. In less developed countries, with limited access to swimming pools and fewer resources for private instruction, a range of different open water aquatic environments and practices, such as swimming in temporarily flooded areas, have been reported. Such strategies are in urgent demand of further research given that drowning rates in less developed countries around the world exceed those in developed nations. It can be argued that learning in pools does not afford the opportunities to develop the whole range of adaptive skills that may be required in different open water environments such as navigating currents and waves, floating whilst clothed, or making life-saving decisions. Consequently, a shift toward teaching in open water environments has occurred in several countries. This review provides an evidence-base upon which practitioners can design more effective aquatic education programs for children.

More on the Use of Goggles and Snorkel in Learning-to-Swim: New Results for Children Without Fear of Water

“…Except blowing bubbles and prone swim skills, there were no significant differences in learning improvements in other aquatic skills of young non-swimmers between the use or non-use of goggles and snorkel during learn-to-swim intervention (Table 3). These results are in line with the fact that the use of flotation devices has not been proven to aid aquatic skill learning (van Duijn et al, 2021). Kjendlie (2009) found no significant differences for floating or gliding abilities nor for swimming, arm stroking, and leg kicking performance when the children used the floating devices.…”

Collaborative organizations involving outdoor recreational users in the management of biological invasions: A coproduction perspective

“…The users did not own the resource that required management (Epanchin-Niell 2017). The priority was to federate as many actors as possible (Epanchin-Niell et al 2010, van Dujin et al 2021) rather than try to combat the "weakest link" within the organisation (Perrings et al 2002).…”

“…Many authors have pointed out the limitations of such strategies based on "command and control" type logics, including their inability to explain the emergence of collaborative actions (Lubell et al 2002, John et al 2006, Epanchin-Niell et al 2010, Graham 2013, Ervin and Frisvold 2016). In the eld, these actions cover a wide range of situations and have been grouped together under various designations, including "collective actions", "grass roots community actions" and "community based actions" (Ayer 1997, Epanchin-Niell et al 2010, Graham et al 2019, van Dujin et al 2021). Their diversity makes these "organisations" di cult to characterise (Epanchin-Niell et al 2010, Uetake 2013, Graham et al 2019).…”

Assessment of water safety competencies: Benefits and caveats of testing in open water

“…van Duijn et al 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.982480 Frontiers in Psychology 03 frontiersin.org different environments, and similarly with children the evidencebase is poor (Quan et al, 2015;van Duijn et al, 2021b). Whilst swimming pools are the chosen location for swim lessons in most developed countries around the world, the majority of drownings happen outdoors (Quan et al, 2012).…”

“… Kjendlie et al (2013) , highlighted the fact that children “should not be expected to reproduce swimming skills they have performed in calm water with the same proficiency in unsteady conditions during an emergency” (p. 303). To our knowledge no studies have compared learning of adults’ performance of water safety-related competencies between different environments, and similarly with children the evidence-base is poor ( Quan et al, 2015 ; van Duijn et al, 2021b ).…”