Welcome to West Valley ISR

What to Expect

Discover our personalized approach to swim lessons and how we prioritize your child's safety and skill development in every lesson

Welcome to West Valley ISR!

ISR swim lessons are for children 6 months to 6 years old. Lessons are 4 days a week Monday-Thursday. Each lesson is one on one for a maximum of 10 minutes a day. ISR lessons are customized to each child based on their age, their developmental milestones they have reached, and their aquatic experience. On average, about 6-8 weeks of lessons are needed to teach the ISR skills.

Infants and toddlers who are not yet walking learn the ISR skills needed to "rollback to float" in the water. Rollback to Float lessons teach your baby to independently turn themselves onto their back, if ever face down in the water, to safely breathe, rest, and float on their back.

Toddlers who are walking well and children up to about 6 years old will learn to "swim-float-swim." With swim-float-swim instruction your child can swim underwater until they need to breathe, roll to their back for a few breaths until rested, and then start swimming again.

FAQs

Will my child need additional lessons?

Based on our research, we know that refresher lessons are important because children change so much both cognitively and physically during the first 0-5 years of life. It is important that their water survival skills grow with their bodies. Frequency depends on the child's age, growth rate, skill level and confidence level. The goal of refresher lessons is to help your child adjust his/her new body size and weight to his/her existing skill level. Your instructor will work with your child to help fine-tune his or her aquatic experience to assist with building efficiency, which will result in self-confidence. This is especially important if your child has not been able to practice any appropriate aquatic skill between seasons.

Why are lessons 5 days per week and for only 10 minutes?

The reason for this is multifaceted. First, repetition and consistency are crucial elements of learning for young children. Research shows that short, more frequent lessons result in higher retention. Second, most children have fairly short attention spans and will not be able to focus on the task for longer and we want to take advantage of the best time for learning. A third reason is that, though the pool temperature is maintained at 78-88 degrees, the temperature is still lower than your child's body temperature. Lessons are work and therefore will also be losing body heat. Instructors check students regularly for temperature fatigue since this is an indicator of physical fatigue.

Do parents have to leave during the lessons?

No. You are truly the best cheerleader your child could have. Your positive support and encouragement are invaluable to creating an effective learning environment for your child.

Why don’t parents participate in the water during the lessons?

We do not want the baby to initially associate the water with the love, attention, and affection of the parent while in the water. Also, it takes incredible concentration and objectivity to teach the baby how to respond to an aquatic emergency and our experience shows that parents often find it too difficult to be objective to be effective teachers with their own children in the water. We gladly invite parents to join us in the pool once their child has independent skills to practice at home.

Download ISR's Family Aquatic Safety List to help protect your family from the hazards of an aquatic environment

Download Safety List

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