Why Young Children Should Learn to Swim

This groundbreaking text presents findings from the first comprehensive international study examining developmental benefits of swimming lessons for children under five.

Robyn Jorgensen’s research reveals that quality swimming programs benefit young children's development across multiple areas, demonstrating early aquatic education’s impact on development beyond traditional water safety and swimming instruction. Using Bourdieu's framework of capital and drawing on the Australian context as a case study, the author documents remarkable gains across cognitive, linguistic, social, and physical development, with participating children achieving developmental milestones up to 18 months ahead of international benchmarks. The research measures these significant outcomes while also examining the critical environmental factors that produce such results, including specific teaching practices, program quality indicators, and swim school characteristics that distinguish effective early aquatic education from basic swimming instruction. As well as demonstrating where gains occur, the book explores why quality swimming environments enable young children to flourish across developmental domains.

A must-read for swimming industry professionals seeking evidence-based insights for their program development, this important book will also interest early childhood educators, policymakers addressing pre-school educational gaps, and researchers across education, sport, and child development.