Lane: Cool, sound good. All right, so thanks for joining me, Erika. Can you start by explaining what prompted you to create the program that you run?
Erika: Sure thing! Well, I’m a behaviour specialist by trade, and that’s within the sectors of intellectual disability and autism. So, I’ve been in the inclusion space for my whole career basically, and probably about four, maybe even five years ago, I stumbled across the drowning statistics for those who have autism. And that translates to them being 160 times more likely to drown than their peers. And I initially thought that was a typo because I’ve been working in this industry for so long, I had never stumbled across those before.
So, I started talking with people around the professors and specialists that I was working with and started to dig a little bit deeper and develop an understanding of why this particular population group is at such high risk compared to their peers, and got a really good grasp of probably the six or seven key areas as to why. Simultaneously, at the same time, I became really desperate for the clients that I was working with to engage in swimming services. However, when I went and had a chat with all the local swim centres, they were not prepared to take my clients on because if they needed me, it meant that their needs were probably pretty complex. And swim centres would basically say, “Look, we’re not geared to provide services to those particular population groups because we don’t have a great understanding of their needs.”
So, I said to them, “If I provide you with free training and resources and support, would you feel more confident and equipped to be able to do that?”, and the answer was a resounding yes. And I didn’t quite realize at the time how huge the issue was. And so very quickly, those services were being requested around the state and then around Australia, and now we’re in 12 countries because it turns out that this need is, is across the board.
Lane: Well, that’s great. You mentioned that there are six to seven key areas or key reasons why kids or people with autism are at a higher risk of drowning. Can you touch on those or at least a couple of those to, some context there?
Erika: I might just pick a couple. One thing that a lot of people don’t know about in terms of those who have autism and intellectual disabilities is that over 50% of them have a propensity to wander, and that means that they will leave the safety of the caregiver that they with. That might look like the sort of pacing and being, or it might actually look like them bolting. But more often than not, they gravitate toward bodies of water. And the reality is that when they get to those bodies of water, they generally have a decreased ability to perceive risk and danger. So, whereas their neurotypical peers may have started to develop some of that risk awareness, that tends to be quite difficult for a lot of people with autism or cognitive deficit. And then thirdly, and perhaps most relevant to this, is that most of them aren’t good swimmers. And the reason being that many of our swimmers have excluded from other services again because those services don’t feel like they’re able to cater to their needs or parents didn’t feel like things were going well and therefore exited. We know that 91% of parents in our community have left previous centres because they didn’t feel like it was understanding their child’s needs and/or the lessons weren’t being delivered in ways that are conducive to those people’s needs. So, across the board, we see a huge issue with people not actually having successfully developed skillsets in line with what they should have.
So, I guess they’re probably three of the seven areas that are most relevant. So, we have the propensity to wander, decreased ability to perceive risk and danger and the fact that most of these individuals aren’t great swimmers because of those particular reasons.
Lane: That all makes perfect sense! So if a centre implements your program, what does the program look like? How does it work in the centre?
Erika: Yes, it’s actually a certification rather than a program. So, the certification has three requirements. And that’s that you undertake the training modules, and they’re on a range of different areas. First year’s content, for instance, includes expressive and receptive communication, behaviour challenges, sensory support, everything that you need in order to start developing an understanding of different people’s needs and catering your services accordingly etc.
After you’ve completed your initial training modules, you’re technically Autism Swim Approved however in order to stay certified, you need to be engaging in monthly resources that we send through, and you need to be undertaking a three monthly quiz.
We know from research that people can attend the best training session they’ve ever attended in their life, but the brain will only retain that content for about three months, max! So this model has been set up with the intention of drip-feeding content through in a way that keeps it fresh, new and interesting however without being too taxing from a time point of view because swimming instructors generally don’t have a whole heap of time to put toward PD every month. So, this is based on understanding their needs, their schedules, and how we as humans learn and then putting together in a best practice format. And so at the end of 12 months, swim centres or swim instructors can say, “Look that was great. I really only needed the fundamentals, and we seem to be up and running, and we’ll figure things out on our own from here”, or they might say, “That was great. This has become a really viable important part of our, our organization, and therefore we want to renew our certification”. And every year that the learning content becomes more advanced.
Lane: So is it the centres that go through the content or is it the instructors and the teachers? Do they opt-in and go through that training?
Erika: So you can become Autism Swim Approved as an instructor so that you might work for yourself or you might become the resident inclusion expert within a centre, and you’re the only one who does those lessons; or you can become Autism Swim Approved as a centre, which means multiple people at that centre have become Autism Swim Approved.
Everybody gets set up with their own license, and they have to undertake their own certification requirements. So, everybody’s progress is tracked individually.
Lane: Yeah, that’s good. And I think from an instructor’s point of view; we see a lot move from one centre to another. So I guess that’s an asset for them to be able to have there, I guess qualification in that space to you know if they’re moving from one centre to another, it makes them a more attractive person to employ.
Erika: Yeah. But it also protects the swim centres a lot as we know that they invest a lot in PD for their staff. However staff turnover within the industry is considered high. So, if a swim centre becomes Autism Swim Approved, they technically own those licenses. If the instructor leaves, they can reallocate that license to somebody else. And similarly, if that instructor leaves, they can take it with them if they undertake it in individual instructor license arrangement instead. So we’ve kind of set it up in a way that protects everybody knowing the trends within the industry, I suppose.
Lane: Yeah. Fantastic! And are there any avenues for centres to fund the program? Or how does that work?
Erika: Yeah, there are options. So, periodically you’ll see, either local council or government grants come up which are specific to this sort of area. There’s one at the moment which it almost seems like the grant the guidelines have been written specifically for those wanting to become Autism Swim Approved.
They’re obviously not available all the time, so the other thing that swims centres can consider is the fact that yes, you pay to become certified, however, once you become certified, you get listed on our website so that parents can find you. And so you’re getting more bodies through the door. The way it’s been worked out is that you really only need to receive one referral from us over the course of the whole year in order to the certification costs back. The reality is that most service providers are averaging 11 in their first week. So from a financial point of view, it’s a really safe bet. It’s actually going to increase your revenue, and so those initial certification costs get covered very quickly in every single case that we’ve come across so far.
Lane: Right! Then you said the program is international, which is fantastic. Is there a particular region where it’s most prominent? Obviously, you have roots in Australia and started it there, are that were the most centres are using the platform?
Erika: Absolutely, so Australia is where we’ve got the most Autism Swim Approved providers, and being partnered with Autism and having a few other partners has really helped with that.
The second-biggest climate, if you will, for Autism Swim Approved providers is in the UK. And that’s been part of why I’ve had to go over and just do a tour there for 10 days. There’s a huge appetite in the UK for what we do. And the reality is that we’re the only certifying body in the world specific to autism and aquatics, which has been a huge contributing factor as to how we’ve grown so quickly.
Lane: Yeah. Is there anything else we should know about how autism swim works?
Erika: I think it might be worth noting that process of becoming Autism Swim Approved and embarking on the certification process, and choosing to specialize in inclusive aquatics is not for everyone, and that it really takes some certain personal characteristics to excel in this. That would include things like patience and adaptability and ability to think on your feet. It may also be worth noting that their needs to be some flexibility within the centres themselves; it’s not just about the instructors becoming Autism Swim Approved, the centre probably needs to make some changes. The emergence of sensory-friendly times or blocks in the week is something that we’re beginning to see a lot more of in Australia because it’s not always easy for swim centres to cater to everybody’s names in conjunction with how the rest of the centre is working. So, it might be difficult to change the time that Aqua aerobics is on, for instance.
On top of Autism Swim Approved providers getting listed on our website, they also become connected to all of the Autism Swim Approved providers all over the world.
So yes, you have our clinical experts there to help you whenever you need; however the idea is that you can benefit from shared learning from other Autism Swim Approved providers wherever they are in the world.
Lane: It’s awesome as well to be able to share best practices. Obviously, it’s emerging and new, so learning that one centre has it is also valuable to be able to share that across the others.
Erika: Absolutely! I think people tend to love learning from their peers just as much as from leading experts as well. So the idea is that we’ve set up a community. It’s not just that we deliver training and resources; it’s that you actually become part of the Autism Swim community. And we want to become advocates for inclusion. The more advocates, the better!
And so if you’re going to do it, if you’re going to put your hand up and say, yes, we run inclusive services, you need to do it well. And we’re there to be the guiding figures for how to do that.
I think, you know, once upon a time running an inclusive area within your organization was seen to be quite charitable. And a lot of swim centres lost money on it, but they did it as part of their sort of social responsibility. Nowadays, the climate has changed, and with things like the national disability insurance scheme, as an example, it no longer needs to be a charitable arm of the organization, it can actually be a really viable, strong, important part of the operations of the organization. And so it just about knowing the climate well enough to be able to set it up so that it’s really fruitful. I think the appetite for it has changed based on society changing. And once upon a time, it was like, “Oh, that’s fantastic that you run an inclusive program. Good on you for doing your bit”. Whereas now, if you’re not doing your bit, you’re just seen as a bad guy!
Lane: Yeah. Very good! Thank you for sharing all this information with us. I guess finally if people want to contact you or learn a bit more about the program and in greater depth, what’s the best way for them to be in contact?
Erika: So, everything is on our website, which is www.autismswim.com.au.
Should there be any questions that aren’t on our website, you can just contact us through there. We can arrange a phone chat if that’s easiest, but in terms of signing up and in terms of learning more, and how it all works, everything can be done technically on the website.
