It's water safety time for kids with disabilities
What could we do to prevent children with autism and other disabilities from drowning?
Over on US NPR for 1 July 2026 Jonaki Mehta and Janet W. Lee posted an article called “Kids with autism are prone to drowning. Florida is trying to prevent that.” In their article, which features attractive images and is rich with a mix of facts and popular ideas, Ms. Mehta and Ms. Lee discuss a Florida governmental agency’s policy to provide vouchers for families to secure water safety instruction for their children.
Providing vouchers to help defer the costs of learning appropriate behavior around water is only one way that people can promote safety. There are others. For example, on 27 June 2026, Ethan Love of KXAN published “Cedar Park hosts water safety event for children with autism” in which he described how “community organizations hosted a water safety event … aimed at helping children with autism learn critical skills in a supportive environment.”
The NPR story refers to research by professors at Florida Atlantic University. The study mentioned is by Tana Carson and colleagues (Carson et al., 2025). Professor Carson’s university published a press piece about her efforts to promote water safety for individuals with autis; some readers may find it of value.
There are other formal studies of the effectiveness of aspects of training for water safety. For example, Young Tee Byun and colleagues wrote about training trainers to teach water saftey in July 2025. Echaruge et al. (2025) have an intriguing publication, but I haven’t had a chance to review it.
For mote, see1
Water Safety Tips for Children with Autism by Behavior Frontiers.
The Behaviorist Book Club published a presentation entitled “Water Safety for Profound Autism: A BCBA Guide to Applied Decision-Making” that is based on a book by Cindy Freedman that could be of. interest to readers.
There are also YouTube resources on the channel, Swim Angelfish.
Previous examinations of the topic (the problems?) of water safety Special Education Today have included notes about promoting water safety. Readers may remember “Elopement & water safety: What can we do to prevent drownings?” (23 October 2024).
What can we do? First, we can plan and provide evidence-based instruction in water safety for our kids. It doesn’t have to be in a student’s individualized education plan; it can just be a routine feature of schooling provided as a part of school’s curricula. Second, we can encourage policy makers and other leaders to establish and maintain public health programs that promote water safety in our local communities. Maybe that would be in the form of vouchers, but there are probably other programs that merit consideration, too.
References
Byun, Y. H., Nevill, R. E., Maquera, E. S., McLucas, A. S., Mazurek, M. O., Therrien, W. J., & Ingvarsson, E. T. (2025). Effectiveness of a Train-the-Trainer Model to Teach Water Safety Skills to Children With Autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 40(4), 208-219.
Carson, T. B., Irwin, J. M., Santiago Perez, T., Frampton, I., & Ruby, L. (2025). Effectiveness of a 5-day adapted swim instruction program for children with disabilities. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 5, 1496185.
Echague, E. T., Sampan, F. P., & Agati, C. F. A. (2025). Stroke by Stroke: Combining Kinesiology and ABA. Emerging Pedagogical Practices in Physical and Sports Education, 243.
Freedman, C. (no date). Water safety for profound autism. BehaviorLive.
Irianty, R., Wibowo, A., Niuflapu, R. N., Edu, A. L., Bisai, M. R. H., Wahid, M. A., ... & Suwarti, I. (2026). School‑based swimming education in primary children: a systematic review of teaching approaches, aquatic competence, and water safety outcomes. Retos, 76, 850-861.
Tucker, M., & Ingvarsson, E. T. (2021). Teaching water safety skills to children with autism spectrum disorder. Behavioral Interventions, 36(3), 535-549.
Footnote
I can’t vouch for any of these resources. I don’t know the evidence about their programs. Please don’t take my listing of them here as a recommendation.