Communicating with my son at the swimming pool

Whenever we go on holiday, one of Isaac's favourite activities is swimming. If he can, he will be in the water all day, only leaving to eat. At moderately to severely deaf without hearing aids, this makes communication difficult.

Before he goes into the water and still has his aids in, I ensure he knows the rules, and where he can and cannot go. At almost nine years old, he is relatively confident in the water, but his confidence doesn't quite match his ability, so he needs clear boundaries for when he's in the water. Thankfully, he has access to swimming lessons with signers available through our local deaf children's society group. The teachers are deaf aware, so they make sure instructions are very visible, and he has made great improvements since starting.

We have recently returned from a week in Spain. Our swimming pool there had slides, and Isaac was loving life. Isaac chooses not to use British Sign Language (BSL) at the moment, but we do have signs we can check in with across the pool, such as 'all OK?' or 'time to eat'.

This year was the first he was playing with a boy of similar age, and he communicated his needs to the other child by saying, "Please can you come closer and talk into my ear, as I can't hear you." I try where I can to speak to children Isaac plays with and give a whistle-stop tour of how to communicate with him in the pool. This has got easier the older he is as the children he plays with understand what he needs.

I also noticed a couple of children ask him what his hearing aids are, and he confidently answered, "These are my hearing aids, and they help me to hear, just like glasses help people to see." It's so nice to see him communicate his needs independently and confidently talk about his hearing aids with peers who don't know him. Long may that continue!