Description:
Data gathered indicate that reductions in annual Australian drowning fatalities for not only children, but people of all ages, have hit a plateau, and if anything, figures suggest that fatal drownings in recent years are on the increase. It is alarm- ing that figures are not falling despite the many well-developed swimming and water safety education programs available. The number of drowning deaths in Australia is regarded by governing bodies as far too many, hence it is proposed that the necessary changes required to further reduce drowning may involve teachers within primary schools being used more efficiently in the educational process. This paper concludes that by implementing swimming and water safety with conviction into the school curriculum, all students will become more aware of drowning risk behaviors, thus successfully decreasing drowning fatalities in both the short and long terms
Description:
In 1989, it was noted that lapses in parental supervision was the most frequently cited contributory factor in child drownings [1]. Whilst findings from drowning studies completed in the 1980s are now somewhat dated, more recently it has been recognised that further research investigating variations in parental supervision and differences in exposure to water and swimming pools is required [2]. Whilst supervision is ubiquitously mentioned as a contributing factor in child drowning literature, few researchers have attempted to formally define the term [3, 4]. For studies that have provided a definition, all are based on the hierarchical model of supervision that incorporates three dimensions:Attention: visual and auditoryProximity: touching, within reach, beyond reachContinuity: constant, intermittent, absent [5]Based on this model, a combination of all dimensions is required to define supervisory behaviours, with supervision increasing as one or more of the three supervision dimensions increase. Although there is no standardised operational definition of supervision in aquatic settings or other contexts, the hierarchical model appears to provide a sound framework for measuring supervision.