Marina Sarris

Date Published: June 11, 2026

Children and teens with autism are three times more likely to drown than youth who don’t have autism. Young children, up to age 4, face the highest risk, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, an association of pediatricians.^1,2 Many children with autism wander or run from safe places, which raises their chances of drowning and other accidents.

How can we lower the risk? Here are tips from experts, parents, and autistic adults.

Begin teaching water safety at bath time

Help your baby and toddler adjust to the water, and begin learning about safety, in the bathtub. “Use the bathtub as a way to work on water acclimation, which can help towards learning to swim, and also to teach that water is dangerous,” says Alissa Magrum, executive director of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance.

Talk about safe and unsafe

When out with your child, point out things that are safe and unsafe in your community, says Katie Wentley, water and wandering program manager at the Autism Society of America. For example, the playground is safe and the pond is unsafe. Explain the rules: a child can go to the playground or the pool if a caregiver agrees and goes with them. But they cannot go alone.

Reinforce the information using your child’s preferred way of communicating, including picture symbols or an augmentative and alternative communication device, she says. Read your child a social story about water safety, like this story from the Autism Society. Social stories use pictures and simple language to prepare an autistic child for an event.

Learn how to prevent and respond to wandering

Nearly half of autistic children wander or run away from safe places.³ Learn how to prevent and respond to wandering by reading the National Autism Association’s free Be REDy Booklet. Tell neighbors, relatives, teachers, and others about your child’s wandering, and what they should do if they see your child alone. “Enlist the help of the village,” Wentley says.

Install window and door alarms to alert you if your child leaves your home, as recommended by Autism Wandering Awareness Alerts Response and Education. See SPARK’s tips for preventing wandering.

Expose your autistic child to water safety lessons early

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends enrolling a child in water safety lessons at age 1. These classes typically include a parent or caregiver with each child, and focus on skills such as floating. By age 4, the AAP says, “most children are ready for swim lessons.”^1,2,4 This advice is for children who are developing typically. Ask your child’s pediatrician what they recommend.

Marie Holst, an autistic adult in SPARK, exposed her daughters to the pool very early, when they were still wearing swim diapers. “We live in Minnesota, where everybody we know lives near a lake. So water safety is very important to my husband and me,” says Marie, a community advisor to SPARK.

She hoped that her children would become comfortable putting their faces in the water, something that has been hard for her. Marie didn’t take swimming lessons herself until she was in middle school. For sensory reasons, she never felt comfortable putting her face in the water, although it’s necessary to perform most swim strokes correctly.

Her early efforts with her daughters, Bright and Laura, paid off. They began swimming lessons at ages 5 and 3. “They took to it like fish,” Marie says, and they became strong swimmers. Both girls were later diagnosed with autism.

Find the right swimming class and instructor for your child with autism

Consider swimming lessons that are adapted for people with developmental conditions. Besides teaching swimming, adapted aquatics classes “provide benefits in motor skills, behavior, and mood.”^2,5,6 Call the Autism Society of America’s National Helpline at 800-328-8476 to find swim programs geared toward people on the spectrum.

No adapted swimming program nearby? Many autistic children attend general private or group lessons. Contact the YMCA and local pools for information. Observe a class first, Wentley says. Are you comfortable with the class size, the amount of attention each student gets, and the how the instructor works with students? Talk to the instructors. Are they interested in learning about, and responding to, your child’s needs?

Bradley Brinkkord, a teenager in SPARK, worked with several swim instructors before he joined a swimming program at a school for students with autism, says his mother, Windus Fernandez Brinkkord, of California. That program helped. “After that he was safe in the pool and ocean, and that was a relief,” she says. “We reinforced better technique through the Special Olympics swim program, where he still swims and competes today.”

Teach about the dangers of open water

Swim instructors and families should teach about the dangers of bodies of water. Streams, rivers, lakes, canals, ponds, and oceans have added risks, such as strong currents, rapids, rip tides, or dangerously cold water. Emphasize that children cannot go into water without a caregiver’s permission and supervision.

By itself, knowing how to swim may not prevent a drowning. “Learning to swim may or may not help if someone is going into brackish water where there are alligators, or there’s something that could pull them underwater,” Wentley explains.

Create routines that slow down a child who is attracted to water

Some autistic children are drawn to water and may bolt excitedly from a caregiver’s side at the beach or pool. Wentley encourages families to have routines that children must follow before they can enter the water. For example, they may have to sit down, put on a swim shirt, and wait for a parent to go in with them or to be ready to watch them. Bring toys or other comfort items that help them stay calm while waiting, she says.

Learn about “the five layers of protection” to prevent drowning

According to Magrum, these five things work together to make people safer:

1. Barriers and alarms to keep trespassers out of pools: a four-sided fence with a self-closing and self-latching gate, a safety cover, and door and window alarms.
2. Supervision: a lifeguard, an adult within arms-length of children who cannot swim, and a designated “water watcher,” an adult who agrees to closely watch children in or near water.
3. Water competency: everyone should have water safety and swimming skills.
4. Life jackets: Properly wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket while boating, on docks, in and around open water, and sometimes in pools.
5. Emergency preparation: Get trained in water rescue and CPR with rescue breathing. Bring a phone to call 911. Know where to find rescue equipment, such as ring buoys, tubes, and poles.

For more information on these and other strategies, visit the National Drowning Prevention Alliance and the AAP’s Drowning Prevention and Water Safety website. Watch the SPARK webinar, “Autism and Water Safety: Understanding Water Attraction and How to Reduce Risk.”

Autism, sensory sensitivities, and water

Autistic people may react differently to water, with some enjoying all aspects of it while others experience sensory sensitivities, a common autism trait.

Marie, Bright, and Laura Holst are affected in different ways by sensory sensitivities around water activities. Marie remembers the uncomfortable experience of taking her children to the pool locker room after swimming lessons when they were young. There were too many people, too much activity, and the irritating smell of scented shampoos and soaps, among other things. “It was chaos,” she says.

Chlorine can burn sensitive eyes, and swim goggles and caps can pinch. “Typically I can’t wear goggles,” recalls Bright, who is now 23.

“I also do not like opening my eyes under the water,” says Laura, who is 21. “That hurts later.”

Wet sand from a beach and mud from a lake bottom can feel very uncomfortable, Marie says.

As the Holsts point out, it’s important to be aware that people on the spectrum may have different sensory reactions to water and swimming.

Interested in joining SPARK? Here’s what you should know.

Photo credit: iStock

References

1. Shenoi R.P. et al. Prevention of drowning: Technical report. Pediatrics (2026) Article preprint
2. Shenoi R.P. et al. Prevention of drowning: Policy statement. Pediatrics (2026) Article preprint
3. Anderson C. et al. Pediatrics 130, 870-877 (2012) PubMed
4. McCallin T. and R. Shenoi Healthychildren.org (2026) Accessed June 2, 2026
5. Munn E.E. et al. J. Clin. Med. 10, 5557 (2021) PubMed
6. Carter B.C. and L. Koch OTJR. 43, 245-254 (2023) PubMed