What are Self-Rescue Lessons?
Going beyond traditional swim instruction, ISR teaches children how to survive in the water. Depending on your child’s age, your child will learn different levels of Self-Rescue skills, including a roll-back-to-float or a swim-float-swim sequence.
Children between the ages of 6 to 12 months old are taught to roll over and maintain a float position in the event of an accidental fall into the water. Teaching your infant to float takes approximately 3-5 weeks. Private 10-minute lessons are held 5 days a week, Monday through Friday. Fully skilled infants can maintain a float in a bathing suit or in clothing. ISR highly recommends survival training when your infant begins to crawl.
Children over the age of one year old are taught to swim with their faces in the water, and when they sense the need for air, to roll onto their back and float. After resting and catching their breath, they roll over and continue to swim to the nearest point of safety. A child can perform this swim-float-swim sequence to safely reach their point of entry into the water in a survival situation. Children will be taught to perform this sequence in their clothes. If a child does not see an exit, they will rollover on their back and maintain a floating position. This gives the child time in the event of an accident. This same sequence can also be used for safe fun at the pool. Teaching your 12 month to 6-year-old will take approximately 4-6 weeks.
Why ISR?
Give your child the competence, confidence, and skills of aquatic safety with Infant Swimming Resource’s Self-Rescue® program. The safest provider of survival swimming lessons for children 6 months to 6 years of age.
Founded in 1966, Infant Swimming Resource (ISR), with it’s Self-Rescue® program, is nationally recognized as the safest provider of survival swimming lessons for infants and young children. This method is based on 45+ years of research and development and highly trained certified Instructors committed to your child’s safety.
Infant Swimming Resource’s Self-Rescue® program is scheduled five days per week, Monday through Friday, for 10 minutes each day for six weeks. With a focus on safe, customized, one-on-one lessons by certified instructors, ISR lessons also includes parent education to deliver the most effective and safest results in the industry.
ISR History
The idea behind Infant Swimming Resource was born in 1966 when its founder, Harvey Barnett, Ph.D, was just 18 years old. As an active lifeguard, Barnett witnessed the tragic aftermath when a neighbor’s child drowned. At that moment, he vowed to do everything possible to ensure not one more child drowns.
Barnett began teaching young children to swim and observed how they responded to certain types of communication, instruction and different techniques — even with non-verbal infants. This was the beginning research phase for what is now Infant Swimming Resource’s comprehensive infant swimming education and Self-Rescue program.
Today, Dr. Barnett, is recognized by the State Board of Medical Examiners in Florida, Arizona and California, and is the only, non-medical doctor that has been invited to speak on the topic of pediatric drowning prevention during Pediatric Grand Rounds presentations at hospitals across the United States.
Safety First
At ISR, your child’s safety is our highest priority. Each lesson is uniquely tailored to your child’s needs based on comprehensive assessment and continual monitoring of your child’s health and skill attainment. Because every child learns at his or her own pace, your child will be gently guided through each skill level.
ISR has safely delivered over 8,000,000 effective lessons teaching water Self-Rescue skills to more than 300,000 infants and toddlers and has educated parents and medical experts nationwide on water safety techniques and proven instruction methods. To date, ISR has 800 documented cases of children using ISR techniques to save themselves from drowning.
Parent Education
Your child is not the only one who will learn during lessons. Infant Swimming Resource’s program includes comprehensive parent education on aquatic safety and drowning prevention. For more information on keeping your family safe in and around the water read tips on ISR’s Aquatic Safety List.