Swim with Mrs Deedee

Debi McGehee - Preventing Childhood drowning one child at a time

I am passionate about childhood development and safety in the event they ever find themselves in an aquatic environment. I love connecting with each and every family celebrating every milestone in the pool, and watching kids overcome fears and gain confidence in and out of the water.

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Water-Safety Instructor in Oklahoma City, Newcastle, Tuttle and Moore and Norman

I am a certified aquatic instructor with experience teaching children of all ages, including those with special needs. I am deeply passionate about helping kids overcome their fear of water and educating parents on the importance of aquatic safety.

My husband and I reside in Newcastle, Oklahoma, where we have raised five adult children and are proud grandparents to twelve wonderful grandchildren. Since 2020, I've been teaching ISR and have guided hundreds of young children—just like yours—in learning life-saving self-rescue skills. I believe I am blessed with the ability to help others, and it brings me true joy to see your child achieve their goals, whether that's SWIM FLOAT SWIM, ROLLBACK to FLOAT, or continuing maintenance lessons as they grow and develop.

FAQs

Why don’t parents participate in the water during the lessons?

We do not want the baby to initially associate the water with the love, attention, and affection of the parent while in the water. Also, it takes incredible concentration and objectivity to teach the baby how to respond to an aquatic emergency and our experience shows that parents often find it too difficult to be objective to be effective teachers with their own children in the water. We gladly invite parents to join us in the pool once their child has independent skills to practice at home.

Can you really teach a child who is not verbal how to swim?

Yes. Consider that children learn to sit, crawl and walk before they learn to speak. Because we teach through sensori-motor learning, verbal skills are not required for a child to acquire Self-Rescue skills. We are able to communicate with our students through touch and positive reinforcement while striving to set our students up for success every step of the way.

What other benefits does the ISR lesson experience provide students?

Every child is unique. However, many parents report that once their young children have mastered learning to swim, the resulting confidence in their abilities engenders a positive self-concept that is often demonstrated in other aspects of their personalities. There are also obvious health and other psychological gains.

How do you teach them to hold their breath?

Breath holding skills are taught beginning with the first lesson. We shape breath control using highly effective positive reinforcement techniques. We continue to reinforce these breath-holding techniques throughout every lesson.

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