Infant Swim Instructor Teaches Little Ones To Save Themselves

CENTRAL INDIANA — If you keep up with the daily news, you've most likely watched or read the heart-wrenching stories of children drowning in a local pool or nearby body of water. If it seems like this is happening all too often, that's because it is. In fact, state and federal statistics tell us drowning was the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death in children between ages 1 and 4 in 2017. That's one of the reasons Emily Schroeder and local Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) instructors are working tirelessly to change that statistic.

According to the 2017 Drowning Prevention Report by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR), 50 percent of drownings in Indiana occur in the months of June, July and August.

Since Dr. Harvey Barnett founded Infant Swimming Resource in 1966, ISR has become the global leader for safe survival swimming lessons for young children and infants ages six months to 6 years old, as its hundreds of instructors have given more than eight million ISR Self-Rescue lessons to date.

While many parents enroll their children in group swimming lessons at a young age, an increasing number of parents are driving their babies and toddlers to their one-on-one ISR lesson with Schroeder, or their local instructor. The lessons are 10 minutes a day, five days a week, for six weeks.

Schroeder, a competitive college swimmer who has also spent years surrounded by water as a lifeguard, said lessons are just 10 minutes a day because that’s about how much an infant or toddler can handle at a time. To make more sense of this, the instructor compared how much one-on-one time a child and the instructor usually have during a group swimming lesson, which she said can usually add up to 10 minutes.

Schroeder became an ISR instructor because it was brought to her attention there weren’t many in Indiana, aside from an instructor in Carmel and an ISR program in northern Indiana.

Schroeder said she’s had friends ask her if she could teach their infants and toddlers to swim. Before she knew it, she was at a two-month training course in Florida to obtain her certification to be an ISR instructor.

In a video (above) of Schroeder, instructs a then-11-month-old baby named Jack, who was almost done with his six weeks of lessons.

According to Schroeder, the brief whimpers like the ones seen in the video happen during a number of lessons, as they're common for an infant or toddler. When asked how parents react to their child’s screams or cries, Schroeder said most parents have either watched online videos of ISR lessons beforehand or already have an idea about what to expect during their child’s lesson, knowing that what their child is learning is a crucial life-saving skill.

That life-saving skill stems from floating. ISR instructors teach the infants to go into a “float” if they were to fall into a body of water.

“I tell the child’s parents to clap if the child looks at them during a lesson, because fear is a learned emotion,” Schroeder said, adding she has some parents who go hide or step outside by choice, in order to not distract their little swimmer.

Jack’s mom, Teddy Gehlhausen, told Patch she and Jack’s dad, as well as her parents, wanted Jack to go through these six weeks because Jack’s grandparents live next to a big pond.

Why ISR?

"It teaches them to be 'aquatic problem solvers,'" Schroeder said, naming one of the many reasons why these lessons are beneficial. At an age where many people think a child normally wouldn't be near water without a floatation device or the support of an adult, all too often and tragically, toddlers find a way to wander off — only to be found in a nearby body of water all too late.

“The parents think this is beneficial and can help with other areas of life for their kids,” Schroeder said. “ISR also helps the child figure out where they’re going to go if they fall in, once they get into their float. They’ll either know where a wall or steps are located, or continue floating if they can’t find those.”

Just because you don't have a pool or a pond on your property, doesn't mean your child is exempt from the 1 in 4 statistic.

"Think of what your kid has gotten into or done in 30 seconds?" Schroeder asked, saying that's how quickly a child can walk away and fall into water.

That’s exactly what happened to Levi Hughes, a 3-year-old who drowned while on a family vacation back in June after he made his way to a pool while his parents were cleaning up from dinner at a beach house.
“After Levi Hughes drowned in mere minutes, his parents researched drowning statistics,” a post on the Water Guardians Levi’s Legacy Facebook page reads. “They discovered that a majority of drowning deaths are during non-designated swim times.”

The Levi's Legacy page adds, “Since supervision is the most effective way to PREVENT drowning, designating an adult to be the 'Water-Guardian' at all times is the best (and cheapest) way to keep children safe around water. There is NO alternative to supervision when it comes to water safety. Drowning can happen in seconds.”

After Levi's death, his parents researched statistics on drowning. What they discovered led them to this idea of "Water-Guardian" tags. These help designate an adult to be the “Water-Guardian” at all times.

In an Aug. 13 Facebook post on the page, Levi’s mother, Nicole Hughes, wrote that the family has held several conferences with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has agreed to a national drowning prevention project in an effort to bring more emphasis to the leading cause of death.

When it comes to the water safety discussion, Schroeder said it’s not happening enough when it comes to pediatricians and parents.

In a Facebook post, Hughes wrote about pediatricians and water safety, saying, “Some are already advocating for water safety. But, the vast majority have, ever so humbly, admitted that they rarely cover water safety, especially about drowning during non-swim time. They promise to always make it a priority, now. I treasure each of these messages. We are changing the future. We are making this better for our children.”

In places where pools are very common, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) studied drownings among children age 4 and under in Arizona, California and Florida, where pools are often found, discovering nearly 70 percent of the children were not expected to be at or in the pool before being found in the water. Of those children, 46 percent of them were last seen in the house.

Schroeder said there should be a lifeguard or an adult whose only job is to watch over children in or near a pool during a get-together or event. In addition, the CDC reported drowning deaths can happen during a lapse in supervision.

Why? She said because when a child drowns, it’s not usually a loud, arm-flailing scene like you see in the movies, and another child or even an adult near them may not know what’s happening.

Puddle jumpers, or other floatation devices, can’t be relied on either, according to Schroeder.

"The dangers of swimming with floatation devices, such as puddle jumpers, wings (floaties) and more, are often not really talked about,” Schroeder said.

Don’t believe that? Watch this video that’s recently been circulating around Facebook, showing a child nearly drowning while within reach of an adult. This video was shared on another ISR instructor’s Facebook page, including a raw, honest description in her post.

“Drowning is quick and it is silent," Schroeder said. "In the video, you see an ISR mom practicing with her skilled children and her focus and attention is on her kids. The person recording was also focused on her family. The little boy to the left (who is not ISR trained) was in water-wings/floaties/a puddle jumper just moments earlier in the pool. He somehow made his way back to the pool without the puddle jumper and is drowning. The drowning child is not even noticed. Luckily the mom ran in to save him. It happens so quickly and quietly!”

How the lessons work:

A common question Schroeder said she and other instructors get from parents is whether they should start lessons right before an upcoming vacation or other event. Schroeder’s response? The sooner the better.
Schroeder said she instructs 30 to 40 kids per day, each individually for about 10 minutes at a time. After they complete their six weeks, they can come back every six months to refresh and build on their skills.

Many of the first lessons are done in what they call the “main” pool, located indoors at one of the local ISR instructor’s house.

Schroeder said the very first lesson involves introducing the child to the water and observe how they are in it and what they’re already capable of. She observes their kicking skills, whether they can step off a step, and other capabilities.

Before they know it, they’re starting each lesson face first, swimming in front of Schroeder, who instructs them how to roll over into a float.”

“Once you show them that air is on their back, they know how to get there,” Schroeder said, adding that they burp during lessons due to swallowing air from learning breath control, not because of swallowing water.

“The way we teach kids essentially becomes muscle memory to them, just like the way we learn how to walk,” Schroeder said. “We teach them that when their face hits the water, you need roll back into your float.

They’ll also practice kicking, and knowing where and how to locate a nearby wall or steps while floating on their back.

So what if you or your family member has your own pool?

“If we know in advance a child’s family or family member has a pool that the child is in most of the time, those on-site lessons can come after they’re skilled in the main pool,” Schroeder said. “That way parents can practice with them in their own pool and go over what to d0 and what not to do. Parents also know things to look out for when the child is in the bathtub.”

At the end of the six weeks, Schroeder said the child is put in the water with their day-to-day clothes on in case the instructor has to make some adjustments.

“If a child falls in the water, it’s usually with clothes on, which when wet can get heavy and weigh them down,” Schroeder said.

Jack Gehlhausen recently had his last lesson, during which he had to get in the water with his clothes on.

“It took a lot of adjustment because the regular diaper with clothes added so much weight, but it was definitely necessary because that’s what would happen if he fell in,” Teddy said.

Why did you enroll your child in ISR?

Like the Gehlhausen family, other area parents had their own reasons for enrolling their child, or children, in ISR.

“Water makes me so nervous,” said Courtney Roth, mother of one of Schroeder’s little ISR swimmers. Elisa, who will be 2 years old next month, takes lessons in the mornings, and Roth said she would absolutely recommend ISR.

Roth said her family has a pool, and therefore Elisa is around water. For this family, water safety is crucial.

“It’s not a matter of oh, they skinned their knee,” Roth said, when discussing the usual childhood injury vs. drowning . “It’s a matter of life or death.”

Roth said when talking with their doctor, the health official told her, “Safety is like layers of Swiss cheese, the more layers you have, the less holes there are.”

What Roth shared is similar to what Hughes wished she had known prior to her son's drowning.

“Why did I NOT KNOW the real truth about drowning?,” Hughes wrote in a Facebook post. “Why, when I was putting in outlet covers, installing baby gates on the stairs, mentally tabulating the servings of fruits and vegetables my kids ate... why at no point during the last 9 years did I worry about drowning? Why was I genuinely confused when I saw Levi at the bottom of the pool? I understand there is a lot to cover in a well-child visit. I am definitely not a perfect mom, but I listened to my pediatrician. I breastfed, pumping in a closet at work for months. I waited until the right age to start solids, even though I was so desperate for sleep I always wanted to give in earlier. I was never late with a vaccine.”

For Matt Cook and his family, a terrifying incident played a role in enrolling 2-year-old Nora (pictured above with Schroeder) in ISR. He told Patch their son, Nora's older brother, got in the pool when he was younger, took his floaties off, and they found him at the bottom of the pool. Although he survived and can now swim on his own, that doesn’t mean Nora is off the hook.

“Nora has no fear, she doesn’t even want to be held in our neighborhood pool,” Cook said, when discussing another reason they enrolled their toddler.

Nora is in her fourth week of ISR under Schroeder’s instruction, and according to her instructor, was already stable enough to hold her “great” float on her own for a bit as early as her second week of lessons.

“I would recommend ISR to parents,” Cook said. “My wife is a pediatric nurse and has watched all the videos online, so she was prepared for any tears.”

But for Lauren Skelton’s daughter, Schroeder’s ISR lessons are the only thing that have helped her 5-year-old daughter be able to swim the right way.

Skelton has a background in education and early childhood development, and said she watches how Schroeder instructs and interacts with the child in the pool.

“I watch how she is with each kid and how they respond, and for my daughter, nothing else has worked,” Skelton said. “We’ve tried three other types of lessons prior to this, but she would go vertical and sink immediately.”

Skelton said this has worked super fast as her daughter is now able to swim all the way across the pool and go to her back to recover. It’s made the time worth it, as Skelton, her daughter and son have been traveling from Bloomington to Carmel five days a week for the lessons, as there are no instructors near or in the Bloomington area. With construction traffic, Skelton said each day is four hours roundtrip.

Skelton’s family receives a discount as her husband is a first-responder. Schroeder offers an incentive to first-responders, because, among other reasons, they’re the ones who are on scene when a child drowns.

In addition to the first-responder discounts, Schroeder said they offer sibling discounts and there are scholarships through ISR.

According to Schroeder, the program makes sure parents and instructors are transparent when it comes to medical needs, as every child and lesson are different. Schroeder said children with asthma, autism or even physical disabilities or limitations are taught.

To help make lessons available to more people, Schroeder said she's working to find a host pool in downtown Indianapolis or in the Broad Ripple area, including anyone interested that has a pool at their home.

"I've had a lot of people interested in lessons in those areas," Schroeder said, adding her clients are currently in the Fishers area or at that main pool in Carmel.

While pool fences, supervision, alarms and other necessary laters are an important part of a drowning prevention strategy, the most important drowning prevention strategy are the hundreds of thousands of ISR graduates, which are proof that a child can save themselves. So far, 800 documented survival stories have shown just that.

For more information on ISR or lessons, visit infantswim.com.

Video via Teddy Gehlhausen; images via Rebecca Bream