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Hi everyone . Sorry I haven't been doing any

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podcasts lately , but I'm back

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and we'll be doing a couple this week . Today

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I'm going to talk about summer and swimming

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. Summer's upon us and

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we need to help our

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little ones enjoy the water . I

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read somewhere that it's one of the primary

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deaths in drowning , with kids on the spectrum

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, so we need to teach water safety

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. So

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the first thing you want to teach is we're going to talk about

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practice . We want them to be able

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to practice , and the

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first thing would be waiting for a grown-up

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. They need to learn that

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they cannot go to the pool unless a

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grown-up is with them . Second

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thing is practice grabbing

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a noodle before they enter the pool , or

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some type of vest or something

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before they enter the pool . And

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the third thing to practice is walking

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around the pool . You need to moderate

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, model it and

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go from to

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the house and from and back so

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they can kind of just practice a little bit before

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they get into the water . So those are three

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things that you need to do

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with your little ones before

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they even enter the water , and that's you

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know wait for a grown-up , grab

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a noodle and learn to walk around

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the pool and be safe . Another

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thing you could get is also is some water

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shoes , things , and we'll

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talk about that in a little bit and

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then once you're in the water , the

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second thing would be , once you're in the water , you want

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to give them a little space to explore the

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water , to feel safe , and

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a good idea is to find an instructor that

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is experienced working with kids on the spectrum

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, and they do have them . We have one here

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in Florida , where I live , and a

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parent is going to send her little one to there

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and if you can I know

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you have to pay a little extra for this but get a

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one-to-one instructor . They're

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really not that expensive , but it

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is well worth it to teach them

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, because I know that if you

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do have a pool or you go somewhere , usually

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they have safety on the doors or rings

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or something like that . But just to be on the

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safe side , you need to train them

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in these steps . Next

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, I want to talk about sensory . If

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a lot of people are in the pool , loud noises

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, moving objects and some

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textures can overload our kids

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, so we're going to talk a little bit about that

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. So the first one we're going to talk about

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is vision Maybe the sun on

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the water , you

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know , bothers them the reflections

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of the goggles . Goggles is a

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good idea , but you need to get

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ones that are reflective . Or

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swimming early , or early

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during the day or in the evening , if the sun

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is bothering them during the day

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on the water , that might be something that you

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want to look into of what time you

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go into the waters For

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auditory . Water is loud

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, can be loud , especially if you've got a lot of people

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in the water at the same

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time . So sometimes the loud

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noises and splashing of the water can

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overstimulate them . So find

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an area in the pool that has

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less people . You can also get

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wax earplugs to help

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them with the noise . So those

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are two options you can do for auditory

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. The other thing is touch water's

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too cold or

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the swimsuit is uncomfortable

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. The texture of the bottom of the pool

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there's difference in goggles

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, those things that you have to kind of look

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at and find out what it is that

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they don't like . So one thing

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that you can do is get swim

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shirts or swim vest , and

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that would be something that they could put on before

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instead of grabbing a noodle . Maybe a swim vest

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, form-fitting suits

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, swimsuits that are not real baggy

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, or anything that fits like a second skin

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, is another option . Swim

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shoes , which I mentioned before , is

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another good idea to put on if

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the bottom of the pool or going down

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the pool , the steps , bother their feet

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, and goggles that collapse

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in the back so they don't

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have to , you know , they can kind of not

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bump off in their face

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is another idea

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, especially if they want to go under the water , maybe

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some goggles would be a good idea . So

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this is a short little one for today . I

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am going to do another one later today

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or tomorrow , but I just wanted

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to go over some of these . For

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summer coming up and swimming , and I know

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a lot of the kids . They love the water , but

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we also have to practice safety and

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so do those things that I said

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. Practice those things

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and give them time to

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explore the water . Maybe set a time

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where there's nobody in the water that give them a

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little time to enjoy the water . Or

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maybe one or two kids , if they have a sibling

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or something , to get them started

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in the waters . But even if they've

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been swimming , still practice those

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things . If you live in a state

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where you know it's cold

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in the wintertime and so you're

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not swimming . You need to refresh

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those ideas

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that I gave you to make sure that they are safe

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. Okay , so that's all

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for today , and I hope

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you guys are having a blessed week . I

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am . A lot's happened to me

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this last week , and so

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I got a new car . I

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remember I told you my car broke down . I don't know if

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I did , but anyway . So I ended up getting a new

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car , so I'm going to be doing a little more work

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with my autistic kids . Anyway

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, I hope you guys have a blessed day and I will talk

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to you real soon . Bye-bye .