A new Liberty County Recreation Department program is making ripples — and soon, it hopes to make bigger waves.
The LCRD has begun an adaptive aquatics program, as part of its summer swimming program, and the parents are ecstatic about the LCRD adding the offering for special needs kids.
“I’m super glad. I think it’s very good for the community,” said Ebony Paradis, whose young son Thomas is taking part. “I appreciate it because I don’t know how my son would get this if they didn’t have the program. I think it’s awesome to have good instructors who know how to do this and know how to work with my son.”
The adaptive aquatics program has 10 kids involved. It is four sessions a week over two weeks, under the guidance of Kaylee Franke. Franke, who did her first adaptive training when she was 16 years old, oversaw a regional adaptive program in Des Moines, Iowa.
“Even in Savannah, there is not a specialized program,” she said. “There are programs that allow adaptive students into their general classes. Having a class that adapts to their need and being allowed to learn how their brain works, it’s important.”
For anyone learning to swim, but especially for those pupils in the adaptive aquatics program, swimming is more than an activity. Franke said it’s also a life skill.
With that in mind, Franke and the rest of her instructors push safety with their pupils, ingraining them with “flip, float, kick.”
“I need to know that if they fell in a body of water, fear wouldn’t overtake them,” she said. “Some of these kids have no fear of the water but no skills. Some have extreme water phobia.”
The trick, Franke said, is “finding a way to get those safety-based skills in every kid.”
Paradis met Franke before finding out Thomas had level 2 autism. Thomas already had shown an affinity for being in the water.
“She said, ‘he needs to learn how to swim,’” Paradis said. “It’s kind of difficult trying to teach a special boy like him. She said, ‘that’s why we have this swim program.’ And he’s learned so much.”
Charrae Jones has noticed a difference in her daughter Jayla, also a participant in the adaptive aquatics.
“I believe this is helping her therapeutically,” Charrae said. “It’s something that is calming for her. When I pull out her bathing suit, she is smiling and ready to go.”
Tuesday morning, Jayla got to the pool with caregiver Aranita Williams, quickly took off her shoes and headed to the steps leading into the LCRD swimming pool shallow end with no prompting or cajoling.
“She’s the most enthusiastic I’ve seen her since she started,” Franke said. “The first couple of days getting her in at all was rough. The very first day, Jayla wanted to jump in and then she didn’t want to get in at all.”
Jones said her children have always been a part of the rec department, and she looks to see what programs and activities are available. One of the swimming instructors at the LCRD’s pool in Midway told her about the adaptive swim lessons.
“It means everything to me,” she said. “They don’t have a lot of things available to them like other children. When an organization puts on something that can assist the needs of my child, it makes me feel appreciative. We’re limited on resources for our children here, so when I find something, I try to take advantage of it.”
Williams, a paraprofessional in Liberty County Schools for 22 years, has seen how limited the offerings for special needs kids are. She’s been alongside Jayla, now a fifth grader, since the “Here, she is being included,” she said of Jayla.
Williams said she has been impressed with the engagement with the children Franke and the other instructors have displayed. For children diagnosed with autism, change sometimes can be an obstacle and “This is her first time coming to swimming. It’s been awesome. The staff has been awesome,” she said. “She’s been enjoying it. She’s willing to work with (others). They’re very routine and they want the one person. To be able, for multiple people to be able to work with her, it says volumes about the staff and their attitude and the positivity they give off.”
Paradis acknowledged her son doesn’t do well with change on occasion, and they are a military family, so for them, change is a constant.
“It’s taken a lot of getting used to it, getting here, for this to happen,” she said. “He’s come really far. They have great instructors here, so that’s really awesome.”
The LCRD’s swim program as a whole has become a tidal wave, going from 40 learning swimmers to 248 at two locations.
“Swim is coming back in Liberty County,” Franke said. “It is a very big deal to us that swim is accessible to all people who live in Liberty County. I think that was our big goal this year.”
Franke said she and the rest of the swim instructors learn just as much from the parents. For instance, one girl has epilepsy, and the instructors have to pay close attention to drops in her energy level.
She also hopes more parents and kids hear about the program.
“It’s adapting to the need of the students,” Franke said. “They shouldn’t have a fear of putting their kids in swim lessons because we are here to make swim lessons possible for all of them.”
