A baby giggles with joy as his mother gets into the pool with him and the trainer greets the baby and asks, Hey, how are you? The baby replies with an adorable smile. The swimming lessons start and thereafter one would only witness happiness, giggles and excitement. It is such a joyful sight.
The trainer makes sure the parent is in control of his/her baby and her constant attention is given to every toddler. All the water related activities are accompanied with a nursery rhyme and conducted in a simple, yet, interesting manner for the toddlers. The trainer is, Harshinie Jayakody, who conducts swimming lessons for toddlers, aged six months to three years at the NCC pool.
Harshinie Jayakody is an AUSTSWIM qualified teacher in Water Safety, Infant and preschool aquatics. The AUSTSWIM Teacher Licence is the industry standard for swimming and water safety teachers, recognized in all states and territories in Australia, as well as in other countries.
Having worked in Australia for one and a half years, she is now conducting the swimming program named, Rainbow Splashes, for six month to three year old toddlers. Started in June 2015, the program is structured in a way that, once a child reaches 3 years, it could join the “Learn to Swim” program at the Rainbow Academy. Therefore, it works like a bridging program for a little one to be introduced to competitive swimming, if he or she chooses to do so.
Importance of learning to swim at a tender age
“The ability to swim is always an asset that we should all acquire. So, it is my intention to give that ability to a Sri Lankan from his earliest stage of life,” says Harshinie, explaining that her program is especially designed for toddlers to become familiar with water and build up confidence, by taking part in a range of aquatic activities.
She feels that it grooms a toddler to become strong and resilient, physically as well as mentally. “I always give prominence to setting up a backdrop to help parents bond with their kids. This not only provides a solid platform to build a strong parent-child relationship, but would indirectly contribute to the well being of society, in general,”
Best age to start swimming
“A toddler at the earliest stage of his life would find an environment surrounded with water more conducive, as he has come out into this world after being inside a sac of liquid for nearly 10 months. So, a water environment would closely relate to the toddler’s senses, more than we assume,” explains Harshinie.
Elaborating further she says, introducing a toddler to water at the most initial stages of his life would be ideal.
“There are parents who are keen to expose their little ones to water at the age of 4 months. But, I usually recommend the age of 6 months, as their immunity levels have grown, and they are less fragile and could handle themselves better by being able to sit and stabilize their heads.”
She says, when a baby is 8-9 months, they might find the surroundings of water a little strange and would tend to be more fearful. However, that too depends on how early the parents want to give this experience to their babies.
New concept to the country
Explaining the fact that she faced many challenges, since it is a new concept to the country, she said, “Initially, I had to do a few orientation classes. According to Sri Lankan culture families are closeknit, and sometimes, grandparents pose an influence on their adult-children. Some of them don’t like the little ones to be in water for more than half an hour.”
She also thinks, due to obvious reasons, there are limitations when it comes to infrastructure. For example, most of the pools are outdoors and exposed to the weather.
“The ideal surrounding for infant training would be a heated indoor pool, not dependent on external weather conditions. So, I have to be patient when the weather gods have their own moods.”
However, Harshinie says, it was easy to promote this within the Generation X and the Millennial Parent Community and consider it as a past time for young parents to keep themselves occupied, and also a method to form close relationships with their babies.
Promoting in the community
She says, at the beginning, there were only 5 - 6 kids, but later on, with the help of friends the group grew bigger.
“Initially, it was by ‘word of mouth” and a little A4 poster at the NCC pool reception in Colombo, that spread the word. It was quite effective, because there is a huge parent community who accompany their kids to the Rainbow Academy at NCC, conducted by Julian Boling. These parents played a major role in taking my initiative to the outside world and help my training sessions grow,” she says.
Why this profession?
“I always had a close relationship with water from my school days. So much so, that the pseudonym my friends conjured up for me was “Maalu””,says Harshinie expressing that she started off by taking to swimming from a tender age and later joined Rowing too.
She has tried her hand at Fashion Designing, but says, it never transcended into a passion. “Then came my marriage, which prompted me to live in Australia for 6 years.”
After her daughter was born she says, she always wanted her to be accustomed to water from her tender age. “Australia is the ideal country for a toddler, because they provide specialized classes for such requirements, with well qualified teachers.”
Accompanying her daughter to the toddler classes, Harshinie says, her “childhood passion flared up”. Also, she says her husband has always been supportive, and encouraged her to follow her passion.
“It brings me mental relaxation to be in the midst of toddlers, who are simple in their thoughts and requirements. So I instantly knew, this would be “THE” thing that I would want to follow.”
Career as a trainer
She feels she is privileged to have chosen her career as a trainer. “It is undoubtedly an enjoyable profession, my work is never dull from beginning to end. I feel that I would be one of the first that a toddler might get introduced to, after coming into this world,” she says.
She emphasized the fact that with this profession comes immense responsibility. Maintaining a high level of trust, with both, the child and the parent is crucial.
“I am mindful of the high risk associated with the profession and about the personality traits I need to maintain to be a role model to the little ones. The smile of a toddler is what makes me maintain these boundaries. It transcends beyond anything I would get out of this profession. Personally, I know that I have done a good job if I see them refusing to go home after their sessions,” says Harshinie.
Future plans
Harshinie intends to be an AUSTSWIM fully qualified trainer, and provide training for coaches in the country and set a platform for them to acquire that accreditation in Sri Lanka.
“And then, I want to build up a network of coaches who are AUSTSWIM qualified, so that babies in urban, as well as, metropolitan areas could get introduced to the toddler aquatic experience,”
Julian Bolling, three time Olympian, also Director and Head Coach of Rainbow Swimming Academy expressing his opinion says, the response for the program is quite satisfactory and they hope to provide more services in the future.
“As an Academy, Rainbow Splashes compliments us in a big way. It is good to see dads taking part in these activities with their toddlers since they are often seen as not allocating enough time for the family. Harshinie’s next challenge would be to popularize this in our city.”
Harshinie is grateful to all those who helped her to make her dream a reality, her parents, husband, daughter, her trainers in Australia and others.