Effective Teaching Techniques for Children with Autistic Disorder in Individual Swimming Lessons

Abstract

The current study aimed to find if teaching techniques used for children with Autistic Disorder (AD) can be extended to one-on-one teaching outside of a traditional classroom setting, but rather in a swimming pool. The effectiveness of the presence of skill demonstration in aiding the advancement in swimming lessons was examined and it was hypothesized that students would advance further with an instructor who demonstrated skills before the student tried them his or herself than those students who received no skill demonstrations. Students were tested for initial skill levels, and tested again every three weeks to track improvements. Results show that the students who received skill demonstrations exhibited significant improvements in skill levels over students who received no skill demonstrations. The results suggest that skill demonstrations do help students and increase chances for improvement in swimming lessons.