Yesterday at our local civic center, there was an event called Autism Swims. This event was for kids with autism to come and receive free water safety and swim lessons. There was also the local fire dept. and police officers in attendance as well as the autism society and other related vendors. It was a really fun event and I only wish that it happened more than once a year. We have been trying to teach MJ to swim for over 2 years now. We even had him in private one-on-one lessons and it was actually horrible for him. I am really grateful for the experiences that MJ had with the wonderful people at this event. I found it very interesting that a middle school student thought of creating this event and eventually made it finally happen. MJ saw it on the calendar in our kitchen and he was thrilled to be doing something special just for him…It was a great day!
Waiting for the event to begin.
Pic with a local fire fighter.
Swim lesson from an instructor.
Doing the “tango” 🙂
We can’t wait for next year!
NickysdayWithAutism 
I wish there was something like that here!
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I know they only do it for autism awareness month. If I wasn’t continually looking for local activities I would’ve never known about it. It was not highly publicized.
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A middle school student created this event? Now thats impressive that someone so young could be so thoughtful. I live in FL so water safety is very important. If only they’d create a swimming program year round..hmph… baby steps though right? Great read!
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Yes I was very impressed by that!
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What a great idea! What part of the country do you live in –?
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South Florida! So him learning to swim is vital!
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what an awesome idea 🙂 and glad he had fun ^_^
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So important for our water loving kids. Were you able to get the name of the instructor? Looks like they had a good thing going there.
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Yes I did. Definitely going to look her up.
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My son is 8 and this year we finally found swimming lessons for children with special needs sponsored by our local Miracle League and a Jewish Community Health Center. (I’m not Jewish but the people there are great!) My son loves the water, but he’s just begun learning to swim. So far we’ve only learned the back float, he’s too nervous to go face forward. I’m so glad to see communities coming together to keep these kids safe! So many of them are attracted to water despite not being able to swim – it’s scary. 90% of autism elopement deaths are by drowning!
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I tried one-on-one swim lessons with someone who was supposed to be skilled in working with special needs kids but she was horrible. He is actually going to receive free swimming lessons during the school day for 2 weeks soon! They did wonders for him last year. I am hoping he does even better this year. Do you live in Florida too? The Miracle League and Jewish Community Center sound very familiar!
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I live in CT but the 1st Miracle League team was somewhere south of here – I want to say Georgia? I’m pretty sure there are Jewish Community Health Centers nationwide too. It’s important to stay connected, to give our kids these opportunities. It can be difficult depending on the circumstances. There’s such a wide range of abilities, sometimes finding a good fit can be a challenge too! I’m glad to hear good news 😉
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