Virtual swim program empowering kids with special needs to learn water safety
MINNEAPOLIS — Two tragic deaths this year in Minnesota of children with autism have families on edge and looking for solutions.
First, a 4-year-old boy drowned in Hopkins this summer.
"It's a fear that you always have, that some day your child will run away," said Fay Jede, the boy's mother.
Running away is a common impulse for kids with autism, as is being attracted to water.
A second child with autism, an 11-year-old boy, drowned in Eden Prairie this month.
"It's unacceptable that this happens again to another child," said Anisa Hagi-Mohamed, an advocate and mother of three children with autism. "There needs to be some real changes."
Dayna Harvey wants to help make those changes.
She's a swim instructor in Virginia certified to teach kids with special needs.
Harvey believes she can help Minnesota families through virtual trainings without having to get in the pool with them.
"The program that I teach is called 'Where There's Water, I Will Wait,'" she said. "If I can teach that they are not to enter water without an invitation or permission to go, then we are going to find it is more successful in keeping our kids from an accidental drowning situation."
Harvey also focuses on making sure parents understand that if their child goes in the water safely, they'll have trouble differentiating that it's not safe when they're alone.
She encourages parents to vet swim instructors as well, as she points out teaching swimming doesn't require certification.
"I'm looking for action," Harvey said. "I want water safety to be a verb. We're going to be 'water safety-ing.' We're going to be 'drowning prevention-ing.' It has to be something that we do."
Harvey says there have been more drownings this year of all children than any year on record.
Parents in Minnesota feel that fear.
"This [latest] death should really wake up everyone and make them realize this could be your child," Hagi-Mohamed said.
Harvey is holding a free water safety webinar next month for parents. Sign up here.