Your Child’s Fear of Swimming Isn’t What You Think
Read more to find out how to better handle fear in the water for children.
Introduction
The latest research shows fear in the water is often rooted in past trauma, emotional overwhelm, or developmental factors, not just physical discomfort. Understanding this fear requires distinguishing between “bad fear,” which prevents growth and “good fear,” which speeds up the learning process. In this research article, I will be analyzing these 4 main points:
Bad fear: this is often caused by traumatic or overwhelming experiences, which prevents growth.
Good fear: creates boundaries for safe and unsafe swimming, which good instructors use to shape better habits in their swimmers.
Using fear as a tool: when used correctly, fear can sometimes be used to learn faster because it creates longer lasting memories.
Adaptive teaching strategies: slower pacing, student-led learning and play-based learning all reduce fear.
This shows that children who fear the water should not skip out on taking swim lessons or learning to swim because there are many ways to handle specific types of fear.
“Bad fear” can significantly hinder growth in skills like swimming.
1. Bad Fear and its Consequences
Understanding the difference between “bad fear” and “good fear” is important to knowing how to progress faster at skills like swimming. In the psychology world, most “bad fear” stems from behavioral inhibition (BI). BI is when a child responds negatively to novelty experiences. BI can exist as persistent or situational, this could be a child being shy about their first swim lesson, or generally always scared about new things. BI is unfortunately something children are sometimes born with, meaning it must be handled correctly to help them learn important life skills, including swimming. The consequences of not dealing with it correctly are outlined in a study led by Nathan A. Fox in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, which states 40% of children that have BI go on to develop mental illnesses/disorders like being anti-social later in life. Of course, that implies 60% end up just fine, meaning there must be another factor in going from BI as a child to anti-social at an older age.
I believe the other factor is how BI and fear are dealt with by family and all the professionals who work with the child, such as a teacher or swim instructor. If a swim instructor fosters more fear from a child, they are bridging the gap between having BI as a child, to mental illness/disorder as an adult. In the same study led by Fox, they explain the mechanism behind how a child develops mental illnesses later with the Detection and Dual Control Framework. Using swimming as the novelty, mechanism shows how BI grows in a child:
Detection Phase: the child with BI becomes extremely sensitive to picking up things like: sensation from cold water, a loud splash, stern instructor, etc.
Automatic Control (how the child reacts): the child’s attention automatically locks onto fear cues (e.g., “What if I sink?” “That splash was scary.”) Then, the child might freeze on the steps, or even throw a tantrum because they have not been given guidance on how to control that fear.
If a child is encouraged to choose the “automatic control” option more often than not, their likelihood chance of developing a mental illness is increased by 6 fold! This is staggering information from Fox, which means there must be another option. Fortunately, a third option exists, Fox named it Planful Control.
Planful Control and controlled stress helps kids develop better.
2. Good Fear and the Benefits
Nathan A. Fox led a study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry where he and other researchers made sense of the mechanism behind why some children develop mental illnesses later in life. They found that in children who have behavioral inhibition either in situations or generally, that those who are encouraged to pick the first option which is throw a tantrum or freeze in the face of new novelty are more likely to later develop problems by 6-fold. The correct “good fear” option is Planful Control. This is when a child with BI consciously redirects their attention away from a perceived threat and toward a goal, using deliberate thinking, emotional regulation, and coping strategies to manage their fear and continue engaging in the activity.
Children who are encouraged to redirect their attention away from perceived threats like swimming in a controlled environment (such as the instructor ensuring they won’t ever drown in a swim lesson), significantly reduces the chance of developing a mental disorder later in life. One study led by Jinnie Ooi in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders found that it reduces the chance by 47%. This shows that correctly dealing with BI and increased danger perception can lead to great results in children, as opposed to more hardship down the road. According to Steven J Howard and Kate E Williams in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, learning how to deal with stress at a young age will mitigate teenage tantrums and allow children to develop adult skills faster. There are correct ways and incorrect ways of implementing this in daily life and parenting, I’ll show why it’s important to find this in a swim instructor.
Learning how to deal with stress at a young age will mitigate teenage tantrums and allow children to develop adult skills faster.
3. Why Good Fear Works
Fear activates the brain’s detection system, more with children that have BI. During this detection, the amygdala is more active, and can either be used to further cement traumatic experiences, or channeled into faster learning. Fox found that to achieve faster learning, the child must have these 3 criteria:
Has supportive guidance (celebrating wins).
Past success to draw on.
Is in a safe and structured environment.
Once these criteria are met, Fox shows that a parent or instructor must then reframe the challenge (e.g. “you did this last week”), redirect attention away from the fear, and help regulate emotion (don’t throw the kid into their fear right away). The study led by Fox found that if teaching methods are applied, memories are actually encoded immediately because of the moderate stress. Fox’s research implies that “good fear” only becomes effective when children are taught to process it with support. This is possible through guided exposure, predictable routines, and top-down reinforcement (like praise and celebrating success). This means, having a bit of fear in swim lessons helps kids learn faster and better if the swim instructor correctly redirects the increase in stress.
Kids who have a bit of stress in swim lessons are more likely to remember what they learned.
4. How to Redirect Good Fear
Having an instructor who understands how to redirect “good fear” is vitally important to your kid’s development. Many swim instructors don’t know that “bad fear” and “good fear” exists, which leads to many who encourage “bad fear.” Below are 3 principles in redirecting behavioral inhibition to “good fear:”
Detect: recognize your child’s behavioral inhibition, when they are shy, afraid or if they hesitate. This is the first step in your child’s detection system activating.
Co-regulate: Children with BI are highly sensitive to tone, pacing, and emotional signals. Instructors must model emotional regulation, slowing down and creating a sense of safety through voice, posture, and language.
Shift focus: Help the child redirect attention from fear to a goal (e.g. “Can you show me how you blow bubbles like last time?”) This includes simply building on past successes.
The costs of allowing bad fear to flourish are simply too high to risk. However, it should not discourage parents or instructors from helping children learn new skills, especially life-saving ones like swimming. Parents and instructors should be educated about “good fear” and “bad fear,” so we can all meet the needs of the little ones who need it most.
Works Cited
Howard, Steven J, and Kate E Williams. “Early Self-Regulation, Early Self-Regulatory Change, and Their Longitudinal Relations to Adolescents' Academic, Health, and Mental Well-Being Outcomes.” Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, vol. 39, pp. 489-496, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1097/dbp.0000000000000578.
Nathan A. Fox, et al. “Annual Research Review: Developmental Pathways Linking Early Behavioral Inhibition to Later Anxiety.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 64, pp. 537-561, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13702.
Ooi, Jinnie, et al. “The Efficacy of Interventions for Behaviourally Inhibited Preschool-Aged Children: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Anxiety Disorders, vol. 88, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102559.
