Does a combined swimming pool and open water education programme for children develop adaptable water safety competencies?

Most learn-to-swim programmes are undertaken in one location (often a swimming pool), which is potentially less effective than learning across a range of aquatic places and contexts.Water safety education delivered in multiple environments may improve skill development and transfer.We investigated whether a combined pool and open water programme improves children's knowledge and skills.Sixty-six children (7 -11 years old, 34 males, 32 females) participated, of which 40 undertook a 5-day education intervention (two days in a pool, one day each at a harbour, beach, river) and 26 were controls.The skills taught and assessed were: continuous 5-minute swimming, floating and treading water, underwater swimming, and a water safety quiz.Skill competency was assessed in a harbour before, immediately after, and approximately one month after the education programme.The number of children in the education group demonstrating high competency increased after the intervention (i.e., quiz = +20%, swim = +22%, floating/treading water = +37%, underwater swim = +29%) Furthermore, performance of the skills was generally improved when combined and adapted in a self-rescue transfer activity.The control group also improved in 3 out of 4 of the tasks, however their knowledge (quiz) performance decreased.Our findings indicate that teaching children water safety in several aquatic environments improved skill competency and transfer.Water safety education should be undertaken in a range of representative environments to promote skill transfer and thereby reduce the risk of drowning in open water.Education providers should consider opportunities to extend pool-based programmes to include exposure to open water environments.