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Hello, my name is Kristen Turk, a certified Infant Aquatic Survival (IAS) Specialist, and the owner and instructor of Water Baby Infant Aquatics located in Liberty Hill, Texas. Before teaching survival swimming, I swam competitively for 20 years and coached swimming for 11 years. During my career, I coached USA year round swim clubs, served as a high school swim team head coach, and coached numerous summer league swim teams. I graduated from College of Charleston with a B.S. in Physical Education with a concentration in Health Promotion.
I grew up a water baby and have fortunately made my life-long passion for swimming a career. My teaching focus shifted to babies and toddlers when my daughter was born. I had her in the water as soon as I could and I realized first hand the value in introducing children to aquatics at an early age. I searched and there were no actual swim lesson programs that taught toddlers how to swim. There were only programs that were more based around singing and dancing in the water. During my training my daughter successfully completed the swim float swim program, and became an independent swimmer at only 20 months old.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to train with Judy and Kyla Heumann alongside the other trainees Nikki Dovey and Shauli Lustig from Infant Aquatics Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. The course is incredibly comprehensive with over 200 hours of in water hands on learning experience including integrating child psychology, child behavior, anatomy & physiology, sensory integration, and safety guidelines within lessons.
At Water Baby Infant Aquatics in approximately 4 weeks, I will teach your infant breath control, to turn over onto his back, and perform the survival back float unassisted. In 6 weeks, your toddler will learn to swim face down in the water, then rotate over to float, rest and breathe, and turn back over to continue to swim. The "swim-float-swim" method not only ensures your child knows how to react to real-life situations in the water, but also gives her the confidence to enjoy the water, safely. Lessons are every day, Monday through Thursday, for approximately 10 minutes. In addition to my Infant Aquatics certification, I am USA swim coach certified, first aid/CPR certified in child and infant, and ASCA level 2 swim coach certified.
I look forward to teaching your child to swim independently, with the added safety that comes from survival swimming. The confidence this program will give your child in the water is like nothing you have ever seen!
