WS WC 1 Establish National Operational Definitions and Objective Water Competency Standards
Develop and implement standardized operational definitions and national minimum standards for the objective assessment of the skills and behavioral components of water competency (water smarts, swimming skills, and helping others).
Spectrum level: Changing Organizational Practices Influencing Policy and Legislation
Evidence level: Medium
Rationale:
Developing and implementing standardized operational definitions and national minimum standards for the objective assessment of the skills and behavioral components of water competency (or water competence) can help people develop greater knowledge, enhanced skills, positive changes in behavior, and more favorable attitudes towards water safety nationwide. Additionally, adopting a working definition at operational levels would clarify the concept of water competency.
Anticipated Impact:
After implementing this recommendation, you can expect to experience the following outcomes.
- Developing and implementing standardized operational definitions and national minimum standards for the objective assessment of the skills and behavioral components of water competency leads to greater knowledge, enhanced skills, positive changes in behavior, and more favorable attitudes towards water safety.
- Develop and implement standardized operational definitions and national minimum standards for the objective assessment of the skills and behavioral components of water competency leads to the development and implementation of scientifically proven methods to help develop water competency.
Evidence:
The existing literature (e.g., Langendorfer & Bruya, 1995; Quan et al., 2014; Stallman, et al., 2017) has used disparate water competence definitions ranging from conceptual to operational that has lead to confusion about the meaning and usefulness of the concept. In addition, how water competence relates to “swimming,” “learn-to-swim,” and “drowning prevention” is unclear. A need exists to tentatively adopt a working definition at both conceptual and operational levels to clarify the concept.
Evidence Sources:
Langendorfer, S.J. (2015). Changing learn-to-swim and drowning prevention using aquatic readiness and water competence. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education, 9:1, Art. 2. https://doi.org/10.25035/ijare.09.01.02
Langendorfer, S.J., & Bruya, L.D. (1995). Aquatic readiness: Developing water competence in young children. Human Kinetics. ISBN: 0-87322-663-11
Moran, K., Stallman, R.K., Kjendlie, P.-L., Dahl, D., Blitvich, J.D., Petrass, L.A., McElroy, G.K., Goya, T., Teramoto, K., Matsui, A., & Shimongata, S. (2012). Can You Swim? An exploration of measuring real and perceived water competency. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education, 6:2 , Art. 4. https://doi.org/10.25035/ijare.06.02.04
Quan, L., Ramos, W., Harvey, C., Kublick, L., Langendorfer, S., Lees, T. A., Fielding, R.R., Dalke, S., Barry, C., Shook., & Wernicki, P. (2015). Toward defining water competency: An American Red Cross definition. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education, 9(1), Art. 3. https://doi.org/10.25035/ijare.09.01.03
Stallman, R.K., Moran, K., Quan, L. & Langendorfer, S.J. (2017). From swimming skill to water competence: Towards a more inclusive drowning prevention future," International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education, 10:2 , Article 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25035/ijare.10.02.03
High Risk Populations Addressed:
All populations can benefit from implementation of this recommendation.
All populations can benefit from implementation of this recommendation, in particular:
- Children ages 1-4
- 15-24-year-old males
- Black, Latinx, and American Indian/Alaska Native individuals
Evaluation Metrics:
None Provided
Implementation:
Consider the following recommendations to ensure successful implementation.
- Develop consensus on operational definitions of water competency to help reduce both fatal and non-fatal drownings.
- Consider developing a task force, similar to that employed by the World Conference on Drowning Prevention to define drowning, may be needed to arrive at a universally accepted definitions.
- Develop valid, reliable, objective, and administrable assessment instruments in order to measure different elements (e.g., water entry, breath control, flotation, aquatic locomotion), varying levels of achievement, and performance under differing task demands and aquatic environments.
Challenges to Implementation:
When implementing this recommendation, you might encounter challenges related to the following factors.
- The lack of a consistent definition of water competency and lack of valid, reliable, objective, and administrable assessment instruments may present a significant challenge.
- Concerted and ongoing efforts to allow acceptance and appropriate use of water competency, and developing an understanding from a dynamic and developmental perspective may be a challenge, as this is a very different way to approach the skills, knowledges, and attitudes that relate to water competency.
Potential Facilitators:
The following factors might facilitate the implementation of this recommendation.
- Interaction, acceptance, and adoption among a majority of the aquatic agencies in the U.S. is an important way to facilitate and implement a clear and consistent conceptualization of water competence.
- An ongoing line of inquiry related to how water competence differs among different populations, under varying task demands, and different aquatic environments is needed, similar to what has been undertaken in New Zealand and Australia.
GAP Recommendation:
The gaps among the definitions of water competency harken back to the worldwide inability to adequately define what it means to “be able to swim.” Part of this inability rests in the overly simplistic way that “swimming” has been defined as a “possession of a person” which does not account for the role of the individual swimmer characteristics, recognition of differing task demands, and widely varying aquatic environments related to the act of swimming along with the role of “swimming” in preventing drowning.
In recognition of the lifespan nature of changes in water competency, longitudinal studies are needed.
In the short-term, cross-sectional or single-age studies will begin to flesh out the elements and valid measures.