Fitzroy families enjoy weekly Splash Time
Families in Fitzroy Crossing are enjoying weekly Infant Aquatics Splash Time sessions with their little ones, as our remote aboriginal swimming pool in the town works to ensure babies and toddlers have an opportunity to learn important water familiarisation skills.
Recent data shows that toddlers remain more likely to drown than any other age group, with one-year old’s at the greatest risk. Across Australia 41% of drowning deaths recorded among children under five occur in one-year-old toddlers. One of our four Keep Watch strategies for the prevention of toddler drowning is to ensure young children are taught water safety skills, along with constant adult supervision, restricting access to water and parents and carers learning CPR.
Fitzroy Crossing Pool Manager Adele Caporn is working with staff from Nindilingarri Cultural Health Services to enable local mums and dads to enjoy the Splash Time water familiarisation sessions with their babies and toddlers each Thursday morning. The Nindilingarri staff assist by collecting the families from around the community and bringing them to the pool.
Adele says the sessions have been very popular. “Depending on what is happening around the community we have between 5 and 20 parents attending the sessions with their children. Some of the little ones that have been attending Infant Aquatics Splash Time since we started have all come a long way with their skills.”
Infant Aquatics Splash Time is designed to help the babies learn to enjoy the water and Adele says they are thoroughly enjoyed by the parents and babies alike. “We make the sessions lots of fun as the mums and dads get in the water with their babies to help them learn vital water awareness and basic swimming skills. Because I have an array of age groups I just work my lesson accordingly, but they always include lots of songs and fun activities so that the babies and toddlers enjoy being in the pool.”
The Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pool project is supported by the Department of Communities and BHP. You can read more about the impact the pools are having in regional WA by clicking the link below.
