By Marlon Munroe
The practical aspect of the six-week swimming instructors’ course for teachers and volunteers at Special Needs Schools commenced yesterday with special emphasis on technique corrections.
The course is being conducted at the Colgrain Pool with some 10 persons under the guidance of national swimming coach Stephanie Fraser.
Teachers and volunteers of the Guyana Autistic Society (GAS), Diamond East Bank Special Needs School, East Coast Community-Based Rehabilitation, Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre and David Rose School for the Handicapped went through the rudiments of swimming yesterday.
Moreover, Fraser emphasized that she had to focus on changing some of the participants’ perception of what proper swimming techniques are.
“I had technique corrections because most of them learned to swim in the ‘blacka’ (the Lamaha Conservancy). On the other hand, persons who learn to swim in the river swim with their head up and you find that they have a ‘whip kick’ because of the waves and the choppy water and so when they come into the pool it creates a drag for them.
“But now if they can correct their technique with the river swim without having their head so high they will be much more efficient and they would glide through the water easier without much resistance,” Fraser explained.
Participants were taught the way swimmers breathe, various water safety skills, different floating positions and the correct techniques for the freestyle and breaststrokes.
Volunteer Collin Pickering of the Diamond East Bank Special Needs School and Eric Williams of GAS in Bel Air revealed that many perceptions were changed after their first session with Fraser.
They both said that it is now absolutely important that they learn as much so that they may be able to teach the students with disabilities the correct techniques.
Another teacher of the David Rose School Orissa Sinclair said that while she has learnt some of the correct techniques on the first day, she envisions some challenges when she has to work with students and other children with disabilities.
She said this will be especially challenging since she has to deal with students with intellectual disabilities, autism and Down’s syndrome. She pointed out that some of them are scared of water so to get them into the water teachers will have to make up stories. She believes also that because of the various disabilities it would take a longer time for the students to learn the art of swimming but by the same token she said swimming will be used as a form of therapy and a strengthening tool for the students’ muscles.
Down’s syndrome is a chromosomal disorder caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. Autism, on the other hand, is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behaviour. These signs all begin before a child is three years old.
The programme is coordinated by Director for Special Olympics in Guyana and Sports Organiser for Disabled Persons in the National Sports Commission (NSC), Wilton Spencer.
