{"id":1251,"date":"2025-08-21T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/?p=1251"},"modified":"2025-08-19T18:31:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:31:27","slug":"swim-program-breaks-barriers-for-students-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/2025\/08\/21\/swim-program-breaks-barriers-for-students-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Swim Program breaks barriers for students with disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
Water is essential to life \u2014 our bodies crave it, our planet depends on it and our communities are built around it. But for all its life-giving power, water can also pose a silent threat, especially for those who cannot swim. For students with disabilities, the risks are even greater, and the barriers to water safety are often higher. That\u2019s why a growing number of educators and therapists are creating special swimming programs to build confidence, independence and a life-saving relationship with water.<\/p>\n

\"Marshall<\/p>\n

Enter Marshall University graduate student Gianna Petrella, who after observing her mother work with people with disabilities for years, created her own customized swim program, \u201cSafe Swim for All\u201d when she was just 16 years old. Gianna has since launched the program at multiple sites in the Pittsburgh area, Athens, Ohio and now in Huntington.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started working at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind where my mother is a teacher and that\u2019s where my passion for working with children with disabilities began,\u201d Gianna said. \u201cI also was a competitive swimmer in high school, so this is where the two loves merged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gianna recalled that while her high school offered swimming lessons to the community, there was nothing for students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the idea that we\u2019re doing such a disservice by not helping these children, and there are such alarming rates of drowning for children with autism,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I combined the two passions of working with children with disabilities and swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Official estimates show drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children ages 1-4 and the third leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children ages 5-19. Moreover, some children with disabilities have a\u00a0greater risk\u00a0of drowning, such as those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Down syndrome, heart disease and seizure disorders (like epilepsy).<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers
Volunteers with the Safe Swim for All program help a student learn to swim<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gianna, a student in Marshall\u2019s speech pathology graduate program<\/a>, brought together a team of her classmates to volunteer for the swim program, which took place in July at the Marshall Rec Center with a small group of about 12 students, all with a diagnosis on the Autism Spectrum. Safety is the program\u2019s top priority; each participant is supported by several college volunteers, certified instructors and lifeguards on deck.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our students are non-verbal, so we made visual picture cards to help communicate with them, but we also use all neuro-divergent forms of communication,\u201d Gianna said. \u201cStudents with multiples disabilities learn differently, so my program is totally customized so they can go at their own pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall\u2019s Rec Center and the West Virginia Autism Training Center at the university partnered with Gianna to launch the swim program, which she said she would love to see continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to find someone in Huntington to take over the program when I graduate,\u201d Gianna said. \u201cTo make it sustainable and continue to offer the program is the ultimate goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

For\u00a0 more information about Gianna\u2019s program, visit the Safe Swim for All website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To learn about the Autism Training Program at Marshall, visit www.marshall.edu\/atc<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Water is essential to life \u2014 our bodies crave it, our planet depends on it and our communities are built around it. But for all its life-giving power, water can also pose a silent threat, especially for those who cannot swim. For students with disabilities, the risks are even greater, and the barriers to water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1260,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}