(21 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
West Palm Beach, Florida – 2 April 2025
1. Various of kids swimming with instructors at Big Fish Small Fish Swim School
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Katie Wentley, Autism Society of America:
"Swim lessons are important for children with autism and adults with autism because if you look at the incidence rate of drowning, it’s disproportionately high for those with autism."
3. Kid swimming in pool
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jon Burstein, Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County:
"In 2024, what we found is, of children age five or older who drowned in Florida, 70% were children with autism."
5. Various of pool at Big Fish Small Fish Swim School
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Katie Wentley, Autism Society of America:
"Small Fish, Big Fish is the first official pilot of the program. They definitely have their feet on the ground and running."
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Katie Wentley, Autism Society of America:
"Generally, many people with autism are asked to leave programming or have a bad experience at a pool or learning to swim. Here at Small Fish, Big Fish, they don’t turn away anybody that has autism because they are equipped to meet the needs."
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Taylor, Small Fish Big Fish Swim School:
"So our job as aquatic educators is to make this a fun experience. However, the water is to be respected, it’s all around us, and we need them to learn how, if they fall in a pool, to get back to the wall."
9. Cutaway shot of Lovely Chrisostome watching kids
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Lovely Chrisostome, parent of swim school student:
"When the school called me for this, it was life-changing for me. So I was so happy and grateful that he was qualified to be here. And I would love to know if this can be continued because it’s life changing for kids with autism, definitely."
11. Wide of kid floating with instructor
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Jana D’Agostino, parent of swim school student:
"To take a little bit of a burden off parents to provide this to them is a blessing. It’s truly a blessing."
13. Wide of instructors and kid in pool
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Corey, parent of swim school student:
"We need more inclusion programs, we need more advocates out there, and if you save one child, you did your job."
15. Wide of kid getting out of pool and high fiving coach
STORYLINE:
In an airy indoor pool with fish cutouts on the walls, a group of small children bobbed, floated and tentatively flutter-kicked.
It was what it looked like, a starter swimming class. But here, instructors worked one-on-one or even two to a child. Some staffers held cards to help kids communicate with teachers by pointing instead of speaking. No one blew whistles.
All the students in the class at the Small Fish Big Fish swim school had autism, a developmental disorder linked to a higher-than-average danger of drowning.
It has long worried autism experts and parents, but recent data make the stakes starkly clear. In Florida, a state where water abounds from beaches to backyards, over 100 children who had autism or were being evaluated for it have drowned since the start of 2021, according to the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County.
The numbers highlight an oft-overlooked dilemma: Autism makes swimming instruction all the more necessary but, often, all the more difficult to get.
But her son was in the pool at the autism-specific class at Small Fish Big Fish. An instructor helped him float on his back. When he started showing discomfort – he doesn’t like to get his head wet – she eased him onto his side, where he seemed content.
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