Swim Instruction for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children using floating devices in a swimming pool

Problem

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder face dramatically higher drowning risks, yet little research guides effective swim instruction.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are 40 times more likely to die from drowning than their peers, a risk driven by factors including limited swimming ability, lack of supervision, and inconsistent life jacket use. While learning basic swimming and water safety skills is one of the most effective drowning prevention strategies, few studies have examined what types of swim instruction work best for children with ASD.

The YMCA of the USA’s Safety Around Water (SAW) Program teaches foundational swimming and water-safety skills through an eight-lesson curriculum. However, practitioners have lacked evidence-based guidance on whether individual or group lesson formats more effectively support skill progression while meeting the sensory, behavioral, and social needs of children with autism.

Solution

NORC is evaluating how different swim lesson formats support skill development for children with autism.

NORC is conducting an evaluation of how the SAW program works for children with ASD across 14 YMCA locations. The evaluation integrates three complementary data sources: surveys of parents and caregivers administered before and after the program to assess children’s swim experience, sensory and behavioral factors, and perceptions of the lesson format; a survey of YMCA project leads capturing implementation details, resource needs, adaptations made, and lessons learned about teaching children with ASD; and instructor-completed swim skills assessments tracking children’s progression throughout the curriculum.

This mixed-methods approach allows NORC to assess not only which lesson format—individual or group—helps children build swim skills, but also what conditions support success for children with varying needs. These insights will help Y-USA make evidence-informed decisions about how to offer water safety programs that best meet the needs of children with ASD.

Result

Findings will inform YMCA programming decisions and contribute to the broader field of drowning prevention research.

NORC will synthesize findings in a peer-reviewed manuscript contributing to the fields of drowning prevention, aquatics education, and autism research, helping to address a gap in evidence on swim instruction for children with ASD. The evaluation will clarify whether one-on-one or group instruction is more effective in improving swim skill progression, and how sensory, behavioral, and social characteristics shape outcomes for different children.

Findings will provide Y-USA with actionable guidance for scaling water safety programming that meets the needs of children with autism spectrum disorder—a population that has historically been underserved by standard aquatics instruction approaches.