Supporting Paraprofessionals and Inclusive Specialists in an Aquatic Environment

You’ve started an inclusive summer camp program, or swimming lesson program, and now your kids show up to the pool with their specialist or their paraprofessional. Now what? How do we, as Aquatic Professionals, best support our inclusion support staff? 

To dig into this, we looked at what successful support and pool days look like from specialists’ viewpoints. 

Mark Rembrant has a son who was diagnosed with autism in 2005. They had advantages that a lot of families do not including family and financial support. Because of this they expanded their scope, and in 2018 they started an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy practice where they help clinicians be clinicians. They find that one-on-one work shows the greatest gains for children with autism. 

We also spoke to the Nashville Dolphins, an adaptive swim program based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by Beth Scruggs in 2003, it now helps over 330 swimmers participate in aquatics programming across the greater Nashville area. All of the programming provided by this program is free to families. Brenda Vroon, Executive Director, and Pam Waltson, Program Director, spoke with us about the challenges and greatness that come from running adaptive swimming lessons when the pool isn’t your own. 

What would it look like to have a successful/unsuccessful day at the pool? 

A successful pool day is something that every family hopes for, but when you run the risk of eloping, “rule breaking”, and sensory overload, how do you best support staff and teach lifeguards that it’s okay to bend the rules sometimes? We started by looking at what a successful or unsuccessful day looks like for one of our adaptive children at the pool. 

The most unsuccessful day is obvious. A child is left unattended, something bad happens. On a deeper level we find that there are more nuances to an unsuccessful day than the surface area of a child getting hurt because of inattention that can happen anywhere to anyone. 

For our adaptive swimmers, an unsuccessful day can also look like adults thinking something is wrong because of a behavior, when the child is actually okay, (ex: holding their head underwater because they enjoy the sensory deprivation or water feel) resulting in staff intervention that was unneeded. Mark explains, “We are thinking of risk and danger as a part of it, but it’s about my son behaving in a way that is atypical and having others being okay with that.” 

Pam describes what she considers success at the pool with her swim classes, “The goals for typical swimmers are skill based. While it is important for people with special needs to learn swimming skills, time at the pool means the ability to exercise, move, socialize, and have a support system in addition to learning swimming and water safety. Swimmers can not be successful if they are not given the opportunity to participate.” 

How do we prepare and educate aquatic staff or facility operators for inclusion groups like adaptive swimming lessons or other inclusive programming?

A great way to educate your staff is to find training that they can take as well as finding time to give your staff a basic overview before the group comes to your facility. Explain to them atypical behaviors that they may see so that they can recognize them and be able to handle them in an appropriate way. Building a relationship with paraprofessionals or specialists before they come with their children can also be a great starting point to getting to know the children that are coming to the facility. 

• Communication – Use simpler language. Our lifeguards like to give a lot of information at once. They are trained to say stop and explain. Our adaptive kids may need something easier to understand. “Up, Slow” versus “Don’t climb up the ladder so fact you will slip and bump your chin.” Mark also suggests emphasizing hand gestures and remembering that every disability is different and communication for one won’t work for all. Pam recommends picture card systems, sign language, or gesturing for our non-verbal friends. 

• Atypical Behaviors – It’s important that staff understand that some students may try to elope or run off, some swimmers make loud or startling noises, and other may have no spatial awareness and will choose to ignore space or lane lines. When things like this happen it’s important to talk to the parent, caregiver, or specialist instead of immediately intervening which can make behavior worse. 

• Risk Management – It’s important to speak with groups before they come so that you can prepare your staff for the day and prepare for ways to help mitigate risk. 

  • Is a child too scared to go in the water that day? Are they having sensory overload? 

  • A kid is too big for the kiddie pool, but that is where they are the most comfortable.

  • A kid is in people’s way, but he only wants to stick his feet in and move slowly. 

  • They jump off the diving board but are slow to clear out. 

“How do you patiently slow down the risk behavior and how do you do it in a way that is rewarding for the kid? We want to reinforce the behavior that we want to see.” Mark says this in relation to risk mitigation and staff training. Being educated on these atypical behaviors and finding ways to help the staff redirect can really make the difference between a successful pool day and an unsuccessful one. 

What would be the most comfortable form of communication from facility staff? 

Our lifeguards and swim instructors are used to whistling and correcting a behavior immediately, but for our adaptive swimmers that is not always the best form of communication. Here are some tips instead: 

• Talk to the trusted adult. Whether that is the parent, caregiver, paras, or specialist. 

  • “Hey, we are so glad your child is with us today. We want to do everything we can to make it a good day. If we need to communicate with your child, what is the best way to do that? What works and doesn’t work?” 

• Short and Clear sentences. 

• Remember that every child is different. 

• “People with special needs are delighted to swim. If you have questions or concerns just ask.” - Pam Waltson. 

In a professional setting what do paras and specialists actually want from us? 

The biggest thing that aquatic staff can do to support adaptive programming is to watch, learn, discuss, and ultimately take a step back from what we consider the norm. Every kid is different. How do we look at our rules and then help reshape these rules for our swimmers? It’s important to have open discussions with paras and specialists finding out ways to help without hindering. Meaning that we may need to adjust or re-evaluate some of our rigid rules that we have around the pool while maintaining safety for everyone. 

What do they want us to know? 

Mark wants us to know that every child is different. What works for one child might not work for another. A child might find something to be immediately intolerable and another might be fine with the same exact thing. It’s about adjusting expectations. 

Pam wants us to know that a person with autism is 160 times more likely to drown than a typical person and drowning is the number one cause of accidental death for people with special needs. 

Opening the discussion into hosting inclusive programming can feel overwhelming for an operator, but taking a step back to evaluate the needs of those groups and how best to help them is step number one. Step number two is to remember that these kids love the water as much as we do and we want them to have as successful of a day as our neurotypical kids do. Don’t be scared to start. 

You can find more information about the Nashville Dolphins program here.

About the Author

Mari-Lynn Latta is the Senior Director of Programs at Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville, TN. With over 12 years of experience, she dedicated to building programs and teams that deliver measurable impact and long-term success, while promoting diversity and inclusion across teams. You can reach Mari-Lynn at mari-lynn@nashvillejcc.org if you'd like to connect!

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