At six months old the baby usually has control of their head movement. It is still large compared to the rest of their body. They have better control of their arms and legs. When lying on their back they can raise the leg and catch the foot. Rolling over is also becoming voluntary and they will roll from front to back and back to front when they want a change of position.

Babies enjoy social contact and like to be around their parents and others. If talked to by others and smiled at, they smile back and babble away in baby talk. Parents are still the main focus in a baby's world - they enjoy contact with Mum and Dad best and may become upset when handed to the teacher. In the first set of swimming classes for toddlers there is minimal contact with the teacher so the baby gets comfortable with us.

The head, arms and legs proportion make the child top heavy, which makes floating on the front hard. They may be able to float on the back but this is an unnatural position and they may want to roll to the prone. When on the back, have the ears right under the water or right out, as half in and half out is uncomfortable as it makes the ears vibrate.

Between 9 and 10 months, babies are starting to pull themselves up on furniture and walking around. Most are crawling at this stage and no longer content to stay in one place, but like to be where the action is or in the midst of what is going on.

For swimming, the righting reflex is strong and they don't like being on their backs. However, we still need to practise this for water safety reasons. Babies enjoy being on their tummies and will mimic the crawling motion and swim further.

They have become very good at reading parents' thoughts and feelings. These should be positive and encouraging as this will help build self confidence.

At 10 months the toddler is crawling, pulling themselves up on furniture. In the swim school for toddlers they are swimming between instructor and their parent or guardian with a crawling motion. They are happy on their back when doing rotations and rolling over through the tunnel.

At this time, babies are usually becoming self confident. This happens as the baby is moving around and trying to master the environment without their parents' help. They will also be starting to leave the separation anxiety stage behind and establishing their own identity. They enjoy a swimming for toddlers routine and predictable events, as this makes them feel in control - which leads to self confidence. It is also very important to provide new and different experiences with lots of fun and positive encouragement.

This is also a time that fear can start happening. The easiest way to instil fear is to push an experience that they are not ready for. During the swimming lessons for toddlers, parents and caregivers always need to be happy and positive.

The child’s language skills have improved, they can now understand more words and they are speaking. They enjoy imitating others so are more likely to copy parents and other children in the swimming for toddlers group.