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[quote=Anonymous]Until he is able to dunk his head swimming lessons are a waste of money, unless you get someone who understands special needs and is able to create a program where the first X lessons are devoted just to that, building up to getting his head wet.

My kid was the same way at age 7. The first swim lesson wasn't a disaster exactly, but the instructor clearly didn't have any ideas on how to encourage my son to do it. DS and I spent a week between the first and second lesson practicing putting his face in. I made up a little hierarchy of achievements (I don't remember what, but it was like chin wet, mouth wet, top of forehead, etc.) and my kid got a little toy each time he could do it. For the actual face dunks we first did it on hands and knees in the baby pool but that may have been worse because it was hard to keep water out of his nose.

The last few achievements were the hardest because he really wanted the toy but really didn't want to dunk all the way under. There were a lot of tears but I just told him he could do it whenever he was ready, I would never force him, but he couldn't get the toy until he did it (they were collectable mashem's and stuff like that). He finally did it and was so proud, and very quickly learned to swim after that. I had to break out the toy system for a couple more things, like jumping in and jumping off the diving board, but it didn't take long.

So, if your son could be motivated by money, or a toy, or whatever, I would start with just head dunking/face in water stuff. Would he do that with you? Does he have a therapist? Obviously the therapist won't go to the pool but what if they assigned things as "homework"?

And this was a huge deal for my kid. Stickers or little candies would NOT have been reinforcing enough. Each of these toys cost 4 or 5 dollars and I probably spent close to $150 in all, maybe more. But one psychologist appointment is at least that mush out of pocket, so I considered it money well spent.[/quote]

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