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October 16, 2000 Dear Newsweek Editor, Although I appreciate your inclusion of the Keeping Your Child Safe segment in the "Your Child" Newsweek (Fall/Winter 2000), I am discouraged that you repeated the recommendation of the AAP to parents to avoid swim lessons for children under the age of 4. For many years now, the Academy has repeated this warning although they can produce no studies to substantiate this position. In the sunshine states of Texas, Arizona, Florida and California, drowning is the number one reason for the unintentional death of children under the age of 4. About 1,000 children drown each year in the United States and nearly 5,000 children are hospitalized due to near-drowning accidents. Of the 5,000 hospitalized, 1,000 of those children will suffer severe and permanent disabilities. There are many valuable layers of protection to decrease the likelihood of preschoolers drowning in backyard swimming pools...adult supervision, door alarms, pool alarms, weight bearing pool covers, four-sided fencing with self-closing gates, and yes, swim lessons. To deliberately remove one of these layers of protection is I think irresponsible on the part of the AAP. Professional aquatic educators such as myself do agree that no parent should be lulled into a false sense of security that their swimming preschooler is safe from the tragedy of drowning. Constant, adult supervision is the only way to keep children safe from water hazards. However, deliberately withholding swimming lessons from this high-risk age group is tantamount to not allowing toddlers to walk until the age of 5 to protect them from walking into the street. Jan J. Emler Board of Directors National Swim School Association President, Emler Swim School, Inc. Inside this edition, V2, No.1
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AUSTIN - (512) 342-SWIM (7946)
SOUTHLAKE - (817) 552-SWIM (7946) :: PLANO - (972) 599-SWIM (7946)
PRESTON FOREST - (972) 851-SWIM (7946)
