Baby Swimming

Joyful Dolphin Swim classes teach a gentle fun Birthlight Water Parenting approach that will give you and your child the confidence needed to enjoy water together.

Birthlight Water Parenting is based on respect and acceptance of each baby and of each parent-baby pair in a growing relationship that sets foundations for life. Our method promotes the pleasure and benefits of moving in water with playful and effortless skills inspired by cutting edge research about infant development and the properties of water.

We encourage free movement in the water at a time when a baby is both physically and emotionally ready. The focus of our baby swimming sessions is to learn how to swim with your baby, rather than just teaching your baby how to swim. This subtle difference is what makes our classes so popular and so very effective.

We encourage a peaceful, harmonious atmosphere helping you to relax and enjoy a magical time in the water with you and your baby together. We teach you how to handle your baby with a lightness of touch that still feels supportive. The water will carry your baby and we teach you techniques with positive results, allowing your baby to unfold and enjoy the comfort and the massaging effect the water has on the body…

From the moment you enter the water at our swim school we will be teaching you to ‘water parent’ enabling you the parent to respond to your baby’s body in the water, to follow their natural movements.

Don’t worry if you are a non-swimmer we will accommodate and help you feel relaxed and at home in the water with your little one.

The benefits of early swimming are numerous, and helping babies along the way to swimming can be one of the parents’ most enjoyable experiences.

Infants make an easy transition from their early swimming reflexes to conscious movements if you swim with them, showing the child how to find their buoyancy in the water with minimal support. The emphasis is on encouraging free movement in water that is conducive to swimming at such a time when your baby is both physically and emotionally ready.
However, it is not a case of just playing in the water with your baby; it is a carefully designed progression of skills gleaned from many years of experience with a wide range of babies in on our courses.

• Parental closeness and involvement - it is the interaction of parents with their babies in the water underlies all the short-term and long-term benefits.
• Focus on mutual enjoyment -  the more that babies take pleasure in early swimming, the more delighted are their parents and the babies thrive.
• It may help you overcome an intrinsic fear of water.
• Building on your confidence and sense of freedom - It may also help you recover a playfulness you have not experienced since childhood.
• Going swimming helps you to get to know your baby and may consolidate bonding.
• Physiological benefits - babies can exercise more muscles in the weightless environment, as they are not restricted by their incapacity to sit or stand up.
• Babies that take part in baby swimming programmes are often thought to be happier and healthier. Research shows that early swimmers perform better on tests measuring social, academic, motor and personality developments.
• Water offers a heightened multi-sensory stimulation involving touch, hearing, sight, taste and smell The intense physical contact and eye contact with parents also offer quality stimulation. This can be especially valuable for premature or special needs babies.
• Psychological development - early swimming helps to develop babies’ personalities harmoniously; cautious babies learn to accept risk while rumbustious babies learn to be more prudent. As babies discover that they can propel themselves, their independence and self confidence increase.
• Developing an awareness of water safety