Students enrolled in our special education/therapeutic day program for students with autism are learning swim and water safety skills during weekly lessons at the YMCA pool in Portsmouth. These lessons are made possible with help from the Seacoast Family YMCA staff and a generous grant from The Rite Aid Foundation.
Some of our students are experienced swimmers while others have never entered a pool. Instructors teach each student to approach the water safely and experience the pool at his or her own pace. Some children plunge in with enthusiasm, while others prefer to remain poolside, tentatively dipping a toe into the water while clutching an instructor’s hand.
Kelly Allinson, a Senior Clinical Instructor at The Birchtree Center and a certified Water Safety Instructor and Lifeguard, is helping coordinate the swim sessions. At the first lesson, she recalls, some students needed a lot of guidance and help as they struggled to navigate the unfamiliar environment at the YMCA. “But once they got in the water,” she says, “those same children were able to move more freely and without hesitation. I remember some of the children’s faces were filled with exhilaration and joy.” For many Birchtree students, the swim sessions have become a favorite activity that motivates their hard work throughout the week.
Many children with Autism Spectrum Disorders are drawn to the water. Some are mesmerized by the light that dances across its surface, others love the feel of water running through their fingers, and others enjoy the gurgle of a faucet or the crash of ocean waves. Because water affects all five senses at once, spending time in the water can be very beneficial to children with autism. It can help them learn to organize and integrate the input from all their senses, which enables them to become less overwhelmed in the face of daily multi-sensory input. Yet these children may not understand the danger that water represents. Many children with autism have an under-developed sense of fear and may be at increased risk for drowning.
“We are so grateful to The Rite Aid Foundation for their outstanding generosity, to the Seacoast YMCA and Rumble Tumble Gym for welcoming our students, and to the YMCA for helping transport our students to the pool,” says The Birchtree Center’s Executive Director, Christine Guarino, Ph.D. “Without support from community members like them, we couldn’t provide the full range of services our students need to prepare for full and productive adulthoods.”
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