Posted By Jane Blunt I suspect that there is no single way to characterise the way autistic children behave, so you need to do a tailored risk assessment for the child. They also, from my experience, seem to vary a lot from day to day and minute to minute. We had an autistic boy, aged around 9, in our judo club for a couple of years, and we got to know the occasional behaviours that were likely to cause problems. The safety of himself and the other children then became the primary objective. For instance he was sometimes a little dangerous, and did not seem to know his own strength. He would push and shove a bit, and hit other children. When he was like this he would be paired up with a larger stronger boy (of whom he was very fond), who could be trusted not to hurt him, but who in turn would not be hurt. He could not respond to requests to be careful or to think about when others were being hurt. He would sometimes go for another child's face, which needed us to be quick to move. He didn't like being told what to do. He would sometimes lie on the floor screaming during the warm up session, a behaviour which we ignored. He tended to be a bit negative about his own capabilities, and needed a lot of positive feedback and encouragement. Most of the time he was fine, and enjoyed himself, and no-one ever got injured or seriously hurt as a result of his being in the club. I think everyone benefited from the experience and most of the time he was reasonably well integrated. He did manage to pass some of the progress tests and get 'graded'. Jane

Posted By Zoe Barnett As the mother of a child with autistic-spectrum disabilities, and as a governor at a special school, I can say with utter confidence that the most important thing you can do is to consult fully with the child (if he or she is old enough) and with their family and school. Even profoundly autistic children have some level of communication. This will allow you to design safety features which are appropriate and effective. Autism is a condition which offers a huge range of variables and everyone's autism is different. Some medical professionals now believe that we are all autistic to some degree or other! what works for one autistic child may be disastrous for another. Autism is something you should deal with in the same way as you would diabetes, epilepsy, or any one of the hundred and one other invisible conditions that can affect pool users. There are no grounds whatsoever on which a pool should refuse access to an autistic person - I believe I am right in saying that the DDA applies. You could try your local Autistic Trust for information but as I say, talk to the child and their family and carers. Make it clear that you only want to make sure that the child can enjoy the pool - too many families will have had such negative experiences from officialdom in the past that they may well automatically think you are trying to prevent access, when I am sure it is the last thing on your mind. Do give me a call if you'd like to discuss further.

Posted By Zoe Barnett Mark, in over a decade of experience of working and living with disability I can honestly say that I have never encountered a situation where any risks associated with a disability cannot be reasonably controlled. To assume otherwise leads us to the sort of regrettable situation I have heard of where parents of learning-disabled adults have decided it is too dangerous for their child to learn how to make a cup of tea. When dealing with young people especially we need to bear in mind that some risky behaviours may be the result of being, say, a Down's Syndrome child, and some will be the result of being an excited ten year old having a laugh with your mates. I cannot envisage a situation in which any disabled person could not be helped to enjoy a challenge such as swimming, and they should certainly not be denied the chance to stretch themselves in this way should they wish to take it. It takes a bit of effort on all sides, but in the end everybody benefits. Trust me. Been there, done that.

Posted By mark Ken,Zoe the points you made about risk assessment and qualified pool lifegaurds, as well as one to one supervision are valid and that is why i had mentioned them in my original thread. i have previously worked in swimming pools for 10 years and in that time i dealt with all kinds of disabilities including Autism and have always been able to cater for everyone and provide what i consider fun and valuable learning experience. i apologize to you and Zoe if i have come across as being ignorant. my first comments about the pool not allowing this pupil to enter where as much about their procedures as anything else i.e. do they even provide lifeguard cover, as some private pools do not. however, i think that my point has been some what lost. children and adults for, that matter are asked to leave or refused entry to swimming pools all over the country every day, because they are deemed to present an unacceptable risk to themselves or others. so my question is this, should this practice continue with a child who is disabled? if nothing more can be done to reduce the risk. or do we take on this risk because of fear of DDA. i know that this is an extreme case and a well run and resourced pool should be able to deal with all, but my experiance is that not all pools fall into the above. once again i apologize and would be interested to hear your comments. Regards Mark.

Posted By Zoe Barnett I hope I'm not letting my personal feelings intrude here (I'm sure you won't fail to tell me if I am!) but I still can't envisage a situation in which a disability will pose such a significant hazard that someone cannot undertake an activity. For a start, we are assuming that the disabled person disregards his or her own safety. With the possible exception of the wheelchair rugby team (are those guys nuts or what?!) I think that any physically disabled person is as sensible as the next - and I accept that this will include the average human capacity for sheer daftness - whilst those with learning disabilities will be supported by people who will take that responsibility for them. If we are to start making decisions about what someone can or can't do we must include everybody in that process. To broaden the discussion a little I think we should bring in the problems of people with mental illness (often confused with learning disability). As with the disability issue this is a very sensitive area and I am certainly not advocating the approach of some of more lurid papers, who seem to think that anyone with a mental illness is automatically an axe murderer. However, in some circumstances (for instance if they have had problems with medication) they are as likely to present increased risks to themselves and others. My response to the whole range of potential behaviours/risks and so forth is to assume that everyone presents a hazard. Train your staff in the obvious - eg what to do if someone has a seizure, what are the principle features of autism, how to say "get out of the pool" in sign language etc. Train them to expect the unexpected! That way you are covering as much of your back as is possible.