Colman Noctor: My children have lost the ability to swim

Is this another symptom of the impact of repeated lockdowns on children’s development?

'I enrolled all three of my children in swimming lessons not because I had any designs on any of them becoming Olympians, but because I was feeling the pressure from other parents.' Picture: iStock 

‘I don’t understand why this is happening Dad, I could do this the last time’.

My 11-year-old son and I are in the swimming pool for the first time since early 2020. He is exacerbated, trying to make sense of how he has lost his ability to swim and it's difficult to watch him struggle to re-master it.

In the autumn of 2019, I enrolled all three of my children in swimming lessons. Not because I had any designs on any of them becoming Olympians, but because I was feeling the pressure from other parents. The ‘oh, can they not swim yet?’ comments were becoming more regular as they got older. This was usually followed by a statement about how they think it’s ‘important for children to know how to swim’.

I had to agree with them as I am fully aware of the life-saving importance of being able to swim. But up until that point my children had not had the time to attend swimming lessons as they had been involved in other extracurricular activities and I was acutely aware of trying to not overload them.

I probably did not prioritise swimming as I was never a water-lover myself, and I only learned to swim at about 16 years of age. Being self-taught means I lack any finesse or technique, and although I can get from A to B in the water, I move with all the grace of a JCB with no brakes. 

With the exception of giving my children some vague swimming tips while we were splashing around on our annual holidays, that was all the swimming we had done. Wanting my children to get the right technique, was another reason for signing them up for professional swimming lessons. 

I can still remember those 16 weeks of swimming lessons as it was a particularly stressful time. The swimming lessons were at 4pm, which meant they had to be picked up from school at 3pm, rushed home for a snack and to make a start on their homework, only to be back on the road for 3.45pm to be in the pool for 4pm. I used to dread Thursdays, but I reminded myself that this was an important parental duty.

Incidentally, I would much rather be at the side of a GAA or rugby pitch than in a suffocatingly warm swimming pool gallery, but I sucked it up.

It got easier as I saw all three of my children make great progress over their time there. 

My fears of any of them becoming competitive swimmers with 5am daily training sessions soon faded, as they were by no means ‘naturals’, but they did seem to be getting better as the lessons went on. They all graduated through the ‘beginners’ section to the other more advanced sections and when the 16 weeks were over, they were all able to stay afloat for a reasonable amount of time and move in a general direction, which was good enough for me.

Back in their armbands

It's been 19 months since Colm Noctor's family was in the water. 'None of them had any recollection of how to swim'. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Fast forward to July 2021, it had been 19 months since we were all in the pool together and we were at sea. None of them had any recollection of how to swim. They all struggled to stay afloat and because the shallow end was 1.3m deep, I quickly found myself with an eight and six year old, holding on to me around my neck with the tightest of grips. 

Thankfully, the oldest lad was just about tall enough to be able to bob up and down and keep his head above the water level. Within minutes they were all back in their armbands. The four of us all looked at each other, flummoxed. 

We splashed about for 40 minutes and had mighty craic, but there was no swimming.

It was a moment that caught my breath. Although probably the definition of a ‘first world problem’, I see this as yet another symptom of the impact of repeated lockdowns on children’s development. The well-worn line like ‘kids are resilient’ can be true, but they have still been grossly disenfranchised over the past 17 months. If this regression is so notable in something like swimming, we can assume that this regression is not an isolated dynamic. 

We have heard people discuss the concerns they have about children’s academic progress over the past two years, but the impact on their social and emotional development is much harder to gauge. There is no STEN or Drumcondra scale to measure this. 

What other subtle skillsets have suffered? And what can we do to support children given the inevitable social, emotional and physical developmental delay that has occurred?

The signs of these complications are not obvious because children across the globe are collectively experiencing the effects of the pandemic.  But there will undoubtedly be moments over the coming months and years where the collateral psychological damage of these lockdowns will become visible.

Impact of school closures

My three children moved to a new school in September 2019 and owing to the disruption of two long periods of school closures, two weeks off for being close contacts to a confirmed case, two school mid-terms, and Christmas and Easter holidays, I calculated out of the possible 77 school weeks since January 2020, they have spent 26 weeks in face-to-face contact with their teachers and peers. It is unsettling to look at what they have missed out on.

As we sit on the cusp of a possible fourth wave and hear murmurings that no further school closures will occur, it is difficult to remain optimistic. If we have learned anything in the last two years is that predictions are unpredictable, and there must be a backup plan. Where children’s social and emotional development is at stake, we need to hope for the best, but also prepare for the worst.

Our children have barely survived the major life disruption brought about by the pandemic and I have grave concerns that a fourth lockdown will exceed the psychological reserves they have left.

In the meantime, all I can do is book the next semester of swimming lessons and hope that another surge won’t stop this from happening. I also hope my children’s muscle memory may speed up the learning process.

As adults, we need to sit up, listen and do something about it now. We have had enough warnings and further excuses about it being unprecedented just won’t cut it. If we know what might be coming, we need to be proactive and prioritise the psychological and social wellbeing of our children. We must do everything humanly possible to avoid further disruption.

• Dr Colman Noctor is a child psychotherapist. Please send your questions to [e-mail]