For the last two years, Dad's been taking Hayden to the pool on campus and working on learning how to swim. Slowly, but surely, so it doesn't seem like a chore to either Dad or Hayden.
We tried conventional swim lessons, but with his hearing loss it was VERY difficult for him to hear the instructor and as a result he lost focus easily and it just wasn't a good fit. When it's just Dad and Hayden it's a lot easier because we can use some basic sign language (you pretend to be a shark, and I'll pretend to be a dolphin) which works above water, under water, etc.
We started with getting the face and hair wet - that's a big deal. Then the stairs/zero-depth entry ramp to show how you can stand here, but as you work your way down it gets deeper. Jump in off the edge and Dad will catch you. Throw this toy and hold on to my arm and we'll swim out to get it. Hold the edge of the pool and make splashes as big as you can with your feet. Just little games and things to make sure he's comfortable in the water and developing the basic skills for swimming
The last two weeks, we've ramped up the training regimen with a single goal in mind: THE SLIDE!
Dad made a game out of trying to touch the bottom of the pool with his toes and fingers and push himself back up to get a breath. 'Swimming like a kangaroo'. We have no idea if that's how they do it (or even IF they do it), but it worked. Hayden bounced all the way across the pool in the shallow end (3' 6").
Then there was the last hurdle. Swim from one edge of the slide's exit pool to the other WITHOUT touching the bottom and kicking or swimming hard enough to get a breath and keep going. Hayden said proudly, "I can do it!" He swam those 20 feet like an absolute champ, then completely out of breath and tired he grabbed the edge of the pool and said TA DAA!!
Just to be sure, Dad - the slavedriver - made Hayden do that swim 4 more times just to be sure he could do it when he was tired. No problems at all. Then Dad broke the news to him. "Hayden - you're old enough, and you're big enough and you can swim from one side to the other all by yourself...tomorrow we're going to go on that big blue slide!" Hayden was more than a little excited and couldn't wait to try it.
We got to the pool at 1:00pm and asked if the slide could be turned on in about half an hour. We did some warmups and practiced swimming to the edge one last time just to make sure Hayden remembered the drill. We got up to the top and he saw other boys and girls go down the slide and he freaked out. He didn't want to do it. We told him how fun and exciting it was and he didn't want to do it...but he would go down with us holding him - that would be ok with him.
Not ok with the lifeguards though. Each person goes solo. So what we did was have Mom sit down and have Hayden sit in front of her...then she pushed him down the slide. He was NOT happy. He was scared and nervous and panicky and he bumped his head due to the force of the water running down the slide. He got to the bottom where Dad was waiting and let loose. He was bawling his eyes out and mad at Mom and mad at the slide for hurting his head and inconsolable...but through the tears - the screaming - the sobbing about how 'that was so scary!' - Hayden uttered four little words that let us know everything was and would be fine: 'let's do that again!'.
Three more times being released by a parent at the top of the slide, and he was done with us. He wanted to do it like the big kids and climb up on his own and go down on his own. He even mustered enough body control to stay in a seated position the whole way down. He was fantastic and so proud of himself.
So are we. And we're going to do it again on Saturday.
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