Scaffolding Children with Autism: Teaching Swimming Through Instilling Trust

Generally, children with autism are known to display inadequacies in communication skills, social interaction and motor performance. Previous studies have suggested that swimming is beneficial for children with autism. However, they are still marginalized in this activity as swimming teachers’ knowledge about these learners is inadequate. Embracing the Sociocultural Theory by Vygotsky, particularly the ‘Zone of Proximal Development which states that a learner can achieve success with guidance and support from a skilled teacher, this paper is aimed at featuring the importance of swimming teachers exercising patience and building learners’ trust. These traits and their implications are discussed further in this paper.

Autism is on the rise worldwide. Studies in Europe and Scandinavia have found as many as 12 in 1,000 children with autism, while in the United States between two and seven per 1,000 children. In Malaysia alone, close to 50,000 children are diagnosed suffering from autism and this number keeps increasing at 3% every year.

Dr Rofiza Aboo Bakar from Universiti Teknologi MARA, a MSTA swim teacher and Jazredal Aboo Bakar from Muslim Swimming and Sports Academy, a MSTA Institution member successfully presented this paper.

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