Pool Safety and Pool Exercises
Pool Safety and Pool Exercises
Now that school is out and it is starting to get hot outside I have been seeing more and more people using the pool. This week we will go over some pool safety tips and some fun games that you and your children can play to help develop gross motor skills.
According to Poolsafely.gov , drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death in children ages 1-4. It is important to follow your local pools rules and regulations that are posted around the pool area. Poolsafely.gov also outlines 6 other tips to help keep you and your children safe at the pool. 1) Always watch children when they are in or near the water, and never leave them unattended. 2) Teach your children how to swim. 3) Teach your children to stay away from drains and to never enter the pool if the drain is lose, broken, or missing the drain cover. 4) Ensure that all pools and spas that you and your family visit have compliant drain covers. 5) Install proper barriers and covers on and around your pool and spa. 6) Know how to perform CPR on both children and adults. These tips and more can be found at http://www.poolsafely.gov/
Becca Fitzpatrick is a PT at our Port Royal location and also one of the therapists for Lowcountry Connections. Through Lowcountry Connections, Becca has been providing aquatic therapy to a few patients and below you will find a list of exercises that she uses with her patients and that you can use at home.
- Holding a kickboard or noodle in front of you and doing flutter or frog kicks and race. This helps strengthen the glute muscles.
- Playing tag in the shallow end but using just their arms to move. This helps build upper body strength as well as neck strength to keep their head up.
- Climbing in and out of the pool and have them jump over a target. Slowly increase the distance. The climbing and jumping help to strengthen the upper body, lower body, and core muscles.
Teach your kids how to blow bubbles under water. This will help to teach them to blow out instead of breathing in water when their lips go under the surface. You can also make the exercises harder or easier by adjusting the level of the water. The more submerged they are the more difficult the activity.
-Matthew D’Antonio, PT, DPT
Pediatric Physical Therapist
