welcome to Gilbert ISR
Providing ISR’s Self-Rescue Swimming Lessons To The Families Of Gilbert and mesa, arizona!
Watching your child is not enough, nor are pool safety gates able to protect them from every hazardous water situation. Arm your child with an extra layer of protection in the unfortunate event that supervision lapses — even momentarily — and he or she ends up in the water alone.
ISR is the safest provider of infant and toddler survival swimming lessons worldwide. With more than 50 years of research and development behind ISR’s Self-Rescue program, ISR teaches each child survival skills in conjunction with basic swimming lessons that give them the competence required to safely enjoy the water. To date, ISR Instructors have delivered more than 8,000,000 ISR Self-Rescue lessons and saved more than 800 lives.
Empower your child by enrolling him or her in ISR’s Self-Rescue program.
ABOUT
About Infant Swimming Resource
ISR IS THE MOST EDUCATIONAL AND EFFECTIVE SURVIVAL SWIMMING INSTRUCTION PROGRAM AVAILABLE.
How is ISR different?
For more than 50 years, Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) has been teaching children critical Self-Rescue skills -- giving children the competence and confidence to safely enjoy the water. ISR’s technique teaches babies from 6 months to 6 years of age how to save themselves if they were to end up in the water alone.
What are Self-Rescue Lessons?
Going beyond traditional swim instruction, ISR teaches children how to survive in the water. Depending on your child’s age, your child will learn different levels of Self-Rescue skills, including a roll-back-to-float and/or a swim-float-swim.
Safety First
At ISR, your child’s safety is our first priority. Each lesson is uniquely tailored to your child’s needs based on comprehensive assessment and continual monitoring of your child’s health and skill attainment. Because every child learns at his or her own pace, your child will be gently guided through each skill level.
ISR has safely delivered over 8,000,000 effective lessons teaching water Self-Rescue skills to more than 300,000 infants and toddlers and has educated parents and medical experts nationwide on water safety techniques and proven instruction methods. To date, ISR has 800 documented cases of children using ISR techniques to save themselves from drowning.
Parent Education
Your child is not the only one who will learn during lessons. Infant Swimming Resource’s program includes comprehensive parent education on aquatic safety and drowning prevention. For more information on keeping your family safe in and around the water read tips on ISR’s Family Aquatic Safety List.
History
The idea behind Infant Swimming Resource was born in 1966 when its founder, Harvey Barnett, Ph.D, was just 18 years old. As an active lifeguard, Barnett witnessed the tragic aftermath when a neighbor's child drowned. At that moment, he vowed to do everything possible to ensure not one more child drowns.
Barnett began teaching young children to swim and observed how they responded to certain types of communication, instruction and different techniques — even with non-verbal infants. This was the beginning research phase for what is now Infant Swimming Resource’s comprehensive infant swimming education and Self-Rescue program.
ISR Non-Discrimination Policy
ISR complies with all federal and state laws and regulations and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, or disability. It is the policy of ISR to provide reasonable accommodations to its disabled applicants and students, with the provision of appropriate documentation of the need for the accommodation.
THE SOONER,
THE SAFER!
#NotOneMoreChildDrowns
About Darla
I like to think of my ISR journey as a series of happy accidents.
Happy accident #1: At some point when my firstborn was little, I watched a “controversial” swimming program featured on 20/20. During that segment of the show, I witnessed the most amazing babies performing independent aquatic self-rescue skills. The only controversy in my eyes was that this program was not available in every part of the United States, including my area. We moved out of our lake front home solely for the safety of our growing family.
Happy accident #2: In August of 1997 that same swimming program, which I later came to know as Infant Swimming Resource, was to be featured on Dateline NBC. This time however, our local news did a cross-promotion featuring a local Instructor. I learned her name on a Thursday, and my 10 month old (who is now well into his 20s) started lessons with this ISR Instructor on Monday morning.
My infant who learned the rollback-to-float at the end of that summer went back to ISR eight months later to learn the swim-float-swim sequence as a toddler.
Happy accident #3: There was only one ISR Instructor who was attempting to serve the entire metro Phoenix area. She needed help to reach as many children as possible before they could reach the water alone. At her urging, I committed to train to become a Certified ISR Instructor. Shortly after my third baby was born in mid-July, we started the in-water training on August 3, 1998 – almost exactly one year after that fateful newscast that started my ISR journey.
I have taught thousands of students, tens of thousands of individual lessons, and now as a Master Instructor, trained more than 50 Instructors from across the United States, Canada, Turks and Caicos, and Argentina.
Working with your family might just be my next happy accident! I appreciate that you are taking the time to research and find the very best technique to empower your child and allow him or her to become an aquatic problem solver.
I can’t wait to meet you on this path that chose me. I’m beginning to think happy accidents are not accidents at all.
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA!
ISR LESSONS
What Will Your Child Learn?
ABOUT LESSONS
What your child will learn, and the way he or she will learn it, is what makes ISR’s Self‐Rescue survival swimming program so different from traditional swimming lessons. Always putting safety first, ISR emphasizes competence, which leads to confidence, and provides the foundation for a lifetime of enjoyment in and around the water.
ISR lessons are designed for any child over 6 months of age. This is not a traditional swim class where they will be playing in the pool with other kids like a "Mommy and Me" or "Water Babies" class; this is a behaviorally based swim program that teaches survival swimming and Self-Rescue skills. This is a course designed to teach your child and their body how to respond and rescue themselves in a potential aquatic emergency situation. Parents do not get into the pool until the last week of lessons. (Read this comparison between ISR and traditional swim lessons.)
The ISR course takes approximately 6 weeks and is scheduled 5 days per week, Monday through Friday, for approximately 10 minutes each day. Children may begin lessons at 6-months of age, until 6-years of age. Lessons are always taught at your child’s emotional and physical pace with safety as the top priority. Since accidents don’t typically happen when a child is dressed in a bathing suit, completely skilled students will practice their skills fully clothed. What your child will learn depends on his or her age and developmental readiness, but in all cases, at minimum, your child will learn to roll onto his or her back to float, rest, and breathe, and to maintain this position until help arrives.
Students are scheduled according to the individual needs of the parent and student and contingent upon time slots becoming available as other students finish their course. Early registration is highly recommended to better accommodate the time and dates you desire. (Read this overview for more information.)
ISR is an extraordinary program and we are constantly striving to expand in order to eradicate the child drowning epidemic facing our children.
6-12 MONTHS OLD (ROLL-BACK-TO-FLOAT)
Your child is gently introduced to the water by the Instructor. As each child reacts differently, the Instructor will work with your child to guide him through the lesson process and to build a level of trust and comfort in the water. Once this is established, your child will begin to learn how to Self-Rescue.
Think of how your child learned to roll from stomach to back as a young baby. A child 6-12 months will learn:
To hold their breath underwater
To roll onto their back
To float unassisted, rest and breathe until help arrives
To perform these Self-Rescue skills first in a swim diaper, then while fully clothed
~1-6 YEARS OLD (SWIM-FLOAT-SWIM)
You've seen it before, your toddler walks right to the edge of the pool, ready to jump in, whether or not you are there to catch him. His confidence is beyond his skills. Once your child is walking well - typically by the age of one - his increased physical abilities allow him to learn more advanced skills in the water. ISR training for children between ~1 and 6 years of age uses their confidence to help them build competence and the skills to Self-Rescue.
Your ISR Instructor will work with your child's initial skills to help him gain both competence and confidence around the water. ISR has a deep passion for water safety and will not make your child over-confident or fearless, but will educate your child and teach them a healthy respect for the water.
Children 1-6 years learn the following sequence:
To hold their breath underwater
Swim with their head down
Roll onto their back to float, rest, and breathe
Roll back over to resume swimming until they reach the side of the pool, crawl out or be rescued by an adult
To perform these Self-Rescue skills first in a swim diaper, then while fully clothed
Refresher Lessons
Refresher lessons are extremely important in continuing and maintaining your child’s Self-Rescue skill development. Children grow and develop rapidly from infants to toddlers and into young children. This development process represents improved strength, coordination, and a more finely tuned cognitive ability. In accordance with this growth, children enrolled in ISR return periodically to participate in Refresher Lessons. Refresher lessons are designed to fine-tune your child’s existing ISR Self-Rescue skills to meet the demands of their growing bodies. It will allow them to make adjustments in their float and strengthen their swim. It’s not unusual for children to not swim and float at the same skill level that they did at their last session’s lessons. This does not mean that they have forgotten to swim or float, only that they need to practice their skills in their new, larger, stronger body. The length of the refresher lessons will vary greatly based on the child’s water experience and any interference that may have occurred since the last time they took lessons.
NOTES:
Previous Swim-Float-Swim students will take approximately 2-3 weeks to refresh.
Previous Rollback-to-Float students will take an average of 5-6 weeks to learn the Swim-Float-Swim sequence.
Maintenance Lessons
Maintenance lessons are also available at any time for regular fine-tuning of your child’s Self-Rescue skills. These lessons are highly recommended before going on a beach vacation or a trip to the lake to make sure your child is confident in the water.
Fees and TUITION
There is a financial commitment involved with ensuring your child’s opportunity to receive this specialized aquatic survival instruction. An Online Registration will be completed for each student through the national Infant Swimming Resource office prior to beginning lessons.
Additionally, there is a weekly tuition fee for lessons. Lesson tuition is due on the Monday of each swim week. Tuition is only charged until the child is fully skilled. There is no contract or obligation to complete the full 6 weeks if the child becomes skilled before then. The weekly tuition is due regardless of the number of lessons you attend that week as you are paying for your time slot. Even though tuition is paid on a weekly basis, you are committing to the course until your child masters his survival skills.
National Registration Fee
$105 for initial registration
$40 each following calendar year the student participates in ISR Lessons
TUITION RATES
$120 per week Electronic Payment
OR
$110 per week Cash Discount
accepted Forms of Tuition payment
Cash
Venmo
Paypal
Zelle
SCHOLARSHIPS
Partial scholarships may be available to those who financially qualify.
Please contact me for a list of non-profit organizations accepting applications.
Schedule
All lessons are filled on a first come, first served basis. The ISR National Registration must be completed to keep your child’s time slot on my schedule. This is non-refundable. Each child will learn at a different pace, therefore, the number of weeks to become completely skilled is just an estimate.
INFANTS 6 TO 12 MONTHS (NOT YET WALKING)
Rollback-to-Float
up to 5 weeks
CHILDREN 12 MONTHS (WALKING) TO 6 YEARS
Swim-Float-Swim
approximately 6 weeks
Lessons are available most of the year. Starting in January through March, I offer early morning times indoors at Power and Elliot in Mesa.
There will be one heated, outdoor 6 week session in the Spring at Higley and Baseline. Morning and afternoon availability at this location.
From May through September I utilize residential host pools. My morning session is at Lindsay and Brown in Mesa, and late afternoon lesson times are available near Val Vista and Elliot in Gilbert.
Please consider other obligations and events such as vacations when scheduling the desired dates and times of your child's swim lessons. Consistency is imperative to your child's success in the water.
If you are not close to my location, or my scheduled times do not work for you or your child, you can log on to www.infantswim.com and enter your zip code into the Instructor locator. ISR has many Instructors throughout Arizona and there may be another Instructor close by that can better meet your needs.
Locations
2025
POWER / ELLIOT
INDOORS, Mornings only
Session starting January 20th
Swimming thru March 21st
HIGLEY / BASELINE*
Mornings and Afternoons
(heated, outdoor pool)
March 24th - May 2nd only
LINDSAY / BROWN*
Mornings
May12th - August 1st
ELLIOT / VAL VISTA*
Afternoons
May 12th - end of season
(mornings added August 4th)
*Host pool locations may vary slightly from one session to the next, but lessons will always be offered in the same general area.
GET STARTED
Ready to Enroll?
If you have decided that you are ready to sign your child up for ISR lessons with me, I am happy to teach your child ISR's Self-Rescue skills once the following steps have been completed.
CLICK the 2024 Lesson Time Reservations to find and select available lesson times at your desired location and start date. (This link will take you to a WAITLIST until the Schedule is opened up.)
CONFIRM AND HOLD the selected lesson time by paying the Week 1 Lesson fee ($120) as a deposit. Failure to remit the deposit will result in forfeiture of your selected lesson time. This deposit is non-refundable, but transferrable to the same student within the same calendar year if an alternate time is available.
COMPLETE the ISR National Registration. 30 days prior to your start date (or immediately if your start date is within the next 30 days), you will receive a link to the ISR National Registration Page.
The New Student registration fee is $105. The Returning Student registration fee is $40 each calendar year. This registration MUST be completed and paid online prior to beginning lessons. There are no discounts or exceptions for registration fees.
ISR’s Registration Evaluation Team (RET) is comprised of medical professionals including nurses and pediatricians, who review registrations to ensure each child who is registered can safely participate in ISR lessons.
Please complete the online registration within 24 hours of receipt of the link.MARK YOUR CALENDAR with your selected start date and lesson time. You will receive email reminders and important lesson information at 30 days prior to your start date, 14 days prior, and 7 days prior to your start date.
PARENT RESOURCES
Below are additional resources parents may find useful:
CONTACT
Have A Question Not Covered Above?
Thank you for your interest in ISR Self-Rescue lessons for your family! If you have any questions or would like further information about ISR lessons, please complete the form below and I will be in touch with you as soon as possible.
