Swim program gets kids moving

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This article was published 11/02/2019 (2533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The students in Jodi Hutchison’s Thursday morning swim class range in ages and abilities — some are wearing life jackets and working on blowing bubbles, while others are doing underwater backflips between swimming laps. 

Modifying the lesson to suit the child is the premise behind the new adapted swim program offered by the St. James-Assiniboia School Division.

“What the child brings to me is what I work with,” said Hutchison, who has been teaching swimming lessons for students with special needs for eight years. “I look at them all like they’re cookie dough and I get to see what kind of cookie I get to make.” 

The school division has offered a recreational swim program in the past, but the push to bring in structured adapted lessons came from a group of staff physiotherapists in 2017. 

The program started off as a once-a-week pilot project with 15 kids and has grown — with the help of a grant from Variety Children’s Charity — to accommodate 60 participants twice a week.

“It’s really nice that the division and all of the support staff have welcomed this with open arms and have tried to make it a success,” said physiotherapist Jackie Ogloza, who was part of the team that got the program started.

All of the students are accompanied one-on-one by educational assistants (EAs) during the classes. Hutchison makes a lesson plan for each student and the EAs help them practise the skills needed to achieve their swimming goals. 

“If they show me a willingness to put their face in the water then we’ll start with blowing bubbles and then bobs,” Hutchison said. “It’s nuances that we’re working with and as they develop their program changes.”

There are students who have gone from being terrified of water to active class participants since starting the program. 

“There are certain students that have flourished,” division physiotherapist Gabriel Wu said. “They’re very comfortable with Jodi and the way she teaches.”

When planning the program, Wu and the other staff members decided it was important to get kids from elementary to high school involved. 

“Swimming is a lifelong skill, water safety is very important, but it also gave kids another outlet for their physical goals,” he said. “Students of all ages would benefit from that.”

The students also gain life skills and a sense of freedom in addition to mastering the flutter kick. 

“Not only their physical skills are improving, but also their social skills — they have to take turns and they have to listen and play and interact with different students,” Ogloza said. “It allows some of these kids who can’t mobilize well on ground to do more walking and movement on their own and with support in the water.”

In the future, Ogloza would like to see the program include higher level lessons and competitive swim training like those offered by other divisions.