My name is Jess and I’m a Water Babies Teacher in South Manchester, as well as a Water Babies customer with my little boy, Logan. Logan is three and a half, and we began our Water Babies journey when he was just 10 weeks old.
Logan has a rare brain condition called agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC), which affects around 1 in 3000 people. This was picked up during our 20-week scan and means he is missing a corpus callosum, the 200 million nerve fibres most of us have to connect the two hemispheres of the brain, also known as the brain’s ‘super-highway’. As a result, we were told our baby might have mild to severe learning difficulties and very upsettingly, we were asked if we wanted to continue with the pregnancy. This was obviously a very tough thing to hear during my pregnancy, but we became parents and advocates for Logan and his condition right away. As Logan’s parents, we were only ever focused on making sure he had the best quality of life he could, no matter what the effect of his ACC.
Without his ‘super-highway’, Logan’s brain must find other ways to make connections – we like to say “he has to take the ‘B roads”. This has led to a delay in hitting typical developmental milestones, as well as social and communication differences. Logan is non-speaking and is learning to communicate in other ways, while working with speech therapists to aid his language development. He may learn to talk and he may not, but we celebrate him for who he is and his amazing achievements, despite his disability.
Starting our Water Babies journey
When Logan arrived, I was determined to show him to the world. I wanted to socialise him with as many people as possible and help him learn whatever skills he could from a young age. There’s frustratingly very little research on ACC, but from my reading I learnt not having a corpus callosum can make activities that involve coordination of both the left and right sides of the body a bit more challenging.
This is what prompted us to sign up for Water Babies when Logan was just 10 weeks old, as we wanted to start working on this as early as possible. One of the benefits of baby swimming is you can start straight from birth, and it involves both sides of the body. I hoped swimming and being in the water would help Logan to build those neural pathways, as well as benefitting him physically in his development. But I wasn’t really ready for the impact Water Babies would have on him and on us as a family!
It is impossible for me to put into words the pride I felt when my baby boy, whom I was told might have limited abilities, scrunched up his face in anticipation of me splashing him, or reached out to grab the pool side when I told him to "Hold on, hold on, hold on." He was learning and his brain was making connections just as we hoped!
Now a bit bigger at three years old, Logan is a total water baby. He generally doesn’t understand much language and therefore doesn’t carry out instructions, but through Water Babies he has figured out how to swim. He can kick his legs and move his tiger arms, he can splash and blow bubbles, he can swim from me to his teacher Jenny, he can hold on to the wall then push and glide back to me, he can go down to the bottom of the pool to pick up a sinker, and so much more. Logan just loves to be in the water and my only job now is to make sure he comes up for air!
We love our pool, our classmates and Logan’s teacher, Jenny. We love that we swim in an inclusive environment where Logan can be himself and the other children and carers in his class just accept him for who he is. We love that Jenny understands Logan and his needs, knowing how to adapt her teaching and the skills to him. For example, when working on jumping in from poolside, though he is physically capable of jumping in, he doesn’t understand he’s supposed to. We adapt this to Logan, through Jenny supporting him to jump in to me from poolside and I let him kick his legs to the surface before collecting him – he always has the biggest smile on his face when he’s underwater!
He also loves the social aspect of his lessons and is probably happiest when sitting on the mat with the other children, working on his balance with “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” I often take him swimming by myself in Water Babies holidays, but his enjoyment doesn’t come close to how happy he is in his lessons with Jenny.
Becoming a Water Babies Teacher
As a customer, I saw the same pride on the faces of the other parents in my class when their babies were in the pool. There just isn't any other activity you can do with a baby that comes close to Water Babies; it really is magical! So when Franchisee’s David and Vicky at Manchester South advertised for a new teacher, I jumped at the chance to join the team. I knew I wanted to give that same experience and feeling I had with Logan to other parents.
I absolutely love my job. I love welcoming new babies and carers for their first lessons. I love seeing their faces when their babies go underwater and kick their legs to the surface, swimming by themselves for the first time! I love seeing their anxieties melt away as swimming becomes an integral part of their lives. As the children I teach get older, I love challenging them, within their comfort zone, to perform skills more independently – jumping off the mat, diving off the wall, collecting toys from under the water, and playing and bonding with each other. The magic has never faded for me!
Supporting your unique swimming journey
When your little one has additional needs, it can be quite isolating. Especially in Logan’s case, we had never even heard of the corpus callosum before we were told our baby didn’t have one! We didn’t know anyone else facing anything similar, and it was daunting to take on this new challenge of preparing him for the world, but also working to prepare the world for him and other neurodivergent individuals like him.
At Water Babies, we don’t only teach your little one to swim; we help you grow more confident in your parenting journey, and we build a community of people around you who accept you for who you are. I obviously have great empathy for any customers in my classes with SEND, but all our teachers work to understand every child’s needs and make the lessons as inclusive as possible. If your child doesn’t understand instructions – that’s fine, we’ll support them to do the skills. If your child is scared to go under the water – that’s fine, we’ll keep them on the surface and build their confidence gradually. If your child doesn’t have strength in their legs – that’s fine, we can do our skills from a seated position. You will be accepted at Water Babies, but perhaps more importantly, you will help to build more acceptance in the world of difference. We can all learn together and we can all be friends, no matter what our abilities.
Finding our Community
About a year ago, we found Corpal, the UK charity working to support those affected by disorders of the corpus callosum (DCC), and their carers. In June 2024, we attended Corpal’s annual conference, meeting other parents and children with similar journeys to ours for the first time. This was an incredible experience and highlighted to us the importance of finding your community. For the first time we were in a room full of people who just understood. Many of the other parents talked about the benefits swimming had had on their children, and some had also attended Water Babies lessons.
If anyone reading this is also affected by an ACC or DCC diagnosis, you can reach out to Corpal here: https://corpal.org.uk/
And remember, no matter yours or your little one’s ability level, everyone can learn how to swim