In the study Effects of Baby Swimming on Motor Development and Cognitive Development: A Pilot Trial, Borioni et al. tested to see if infant swimming had any effects on cognitive and motor development. This study was conducted in Rome, Italy with 27 participants ranging from 0 to 3 years. They split the participants into two groups, an intervention group which had swim sessions once a week with specialized teachers, and a control group which did not receive any physical activity outside of their normal day-to-day activities. They found that babies who were in the intervention group showed significant improvement in both fine motor skills (grasping and visual motor integration) and gross motor skills (object manipulation, reflexes, etc.) while the participants in the control group showed no significant improvement. However, they did not find any significant changes in cognitive control development after the ten weeks in either the intervention group or control groups. These results show that infant swimming may be beneficial in improving infant motor development.
By: Naomi G Miller-Edwards