Benefits of Water Play for Children

• Water play supports many areas of child development, including balance, coordination, communication, and sensory skills.

• Bodies of water offer endless opportunities for exploration and learning, from experimenting with water displacement to discovering aquatic life.

• Water play with kids should always be supervised; never rely solely on flotation devices, and make sure all caregivers are trained in CPR.

From the bathtub to the beach, water play opens up a world of opportunities to explore, learn, and grow. Here's how splashing around supports children's development, plus safety tips to keep them protected!

Strength, Balance, and Coordination

All that kicking and splashing during water play is secretly building your child's muscle strength, balance, and coordination! Water adds resistance, requiring more muscle strength to move arms and legs through it than air, so swimming activities work as strength training. Kicking movements engage the core and can help children work on bilateral coordination by moving both sides of their body together through the water. Children also practice coordination skills when dancing, playing pool games, or throwing objects in the water, and use their balance skills to stay afloat. And they can try new gross motor movements without worrying about falling or crashing into hard surfaces.

Sensory Integration

Playing in water is like playing on a brand-new playground, where even the simplest activities, like clapping your hands or jumping, are a whole new sensory experience. And so much of that new sensory input is happening all at once! From the cool shock of pool water against warm skin and the smell of chlorine, to the varying pressure of jets, fountains, or sprinklers, to the distorted, echo-y sounds of being underwater, water play stimulates and supports sensory integration across multiple senses, including children's tactile, olfactory (smell), proprioceptive, vestibular, and auditory senses.

Communication and Social-Emotional Skills

Water play allows children to explore and interact with each other. New experiences and discoveries made within shared spaces offer a great opportunity for social-emotional development. As children play, they will be excited to communicate their discoveries to everyone around them. This is a confidence booster for kids! Because water play typically occurs in a limited space with few supplies, children practice sharing with each other and working together while engaging in play. There are many opportunities for communication development and social-emotional growth during water play!

Exploration and Learning

Bodies of water offer endless opportunities for physical experiments and discoveries. Children may have already investigated wood, dirt, sand, rocks, and other dry substances. But what happens when these substances are dropped or mixed into water? Children also get the opportunity to think about math concepts like water displacement and volume as they explore in a body of water. Water supports a variety of life forms like fish and frogs, so water play can lead to new biological adventures as well!

Water Play Safety Tips for Kids

Water play is a fun warm-weather activity that gives children the opportunity to practice many valuable skills. But it’s important to remember the risks that can come with it! Here are some safety tips to keep in mind when letting your child play in or near water:

• Don’t leave your child unattended, even for a second, in or near water—including bathtubs! Assign another trusted adult with water safety knowledge to fill in for you when you need a break.

• Have all caregivers become trained in CPR for infants and kids in case of an emergency.

• Don’t let children play with water toys that don’t have a Children’s Product Certificate.

• If you have a pool cover, ensure it is completely removed before swimming, and do not allow your child to walk or crawl on it.

• Enforce rules around the pool. Children should not run near the pool or push others underwater.

• Make it clear that some activities, like bike riding, should not be done near the water.

• Flotation devices are not a substitute for supervision. Always stay within an arm’s length of babies and toddlers (also known as "touch supervision") and keep a close watch on older kids who are using these devices.

• Empty all water containers after use; this includes pool toys, buckets, coolers, and inflatable pools.

• Make sure to close and secure any access points to pools or bodies of water near your home after use.

• Life jackets should always be worn when riding on a boat.

• Start swim lessons when your child is ready. The AAP recommends swim lessons as a layer of drowning protection starting at age 1, though every child develops at their own pace and may be ready at different times.

• Remember: swimming lessons are meant to increase water safety and comfort, not replace caregiver supervision!

• Find more pool safety tips here.