Volume 12, Number 4 (April 2020)

In This Issue 12(4)

Welcome to the final issue of the 12th Volume of the International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education! I think you will find the publications in this particular issue to be quite varied, very interesting, and in many cases challenging to some current aquatic beliefs and practices. It also is the largest issue we have ever published with an editorial, 8 research articles, and 4 educational articles. They make for interesting and diverse reading.

As I have noted in several previous issues, IJARE has accumulated a fairly large backlog of manuscripts which have languished in the review process. The "silver lining" to the pandemic is that this particular editor is self-quarantined at home after having had some medical issues that I know put me at rather dire risk if I should contract the virus. Thus, my "silver lining pandemic goal" is to clear out the backlog and be more up-to-date with reviews than IJARE has been in several years! As I have written before, my most sincere THANK YOU to all of you authors who have been patiently waiting for the review process to finish and to the reviewers who are helping move the reviews forward! We are making progress!

Editorial

This issue appears during the 3rd month of the COVID-10 pandemic. I have written my own personal editorial to reflect on this very unusual and challenging time in modern history. I stress the need to use evidenced-based information to modify our personal behaviors and our decisions about returning to the pool.

Research Articles

The first research article comes from Niv Shelef of the Jerusalem Board of Education. It is entitled, "The Partial Immersion Aquatic Approach Using Adjustable Weight Bearing to Improve Posture and Sitting Balance Adaptation for Children with Severe Cerebral Palsy." The study investigated a novel therapeutic innovation using a special sitting chair in a water environment that gradually allows children with cerebral palsy to acquire independent sitting behavior that also allows that to better use manual dexterity skills.

A second research article, "Parental Perceptions of Water Safety among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders," comes to us from Canada. The authors, Amanda Casey (St. Francis Xavier University), Jennifer Blok (Dalhousie University), Katherine Vaughan (Dalhousie University), and William O'Dwyer (Brock University) have conducted an interesting survey from parents with children with autism spectrum disorder. They found some very important as well as disturbing results about parents' perceptions regarding the importance of swim lesson versus the need for careful parental supervision. It is well written and I strongly recommend its reading.

A third research article written by Timothy M. Dasinger, Laura L. Brown, and Ashton J. Sawyers (all from the University of Tennessee, Martin) was entitled "Examining Minority Youth Swimmers’ versus Non-Swimmers’ Perceptions of Swimming Involvement." This research study employing the Swimming Involvement Survey allowed the authors to gain insight into the perceptions about swimming between African-American youth who either did or did not regularly swim. The results have some interesting information that I believe you will find valuable to know.

A fourth research article has a slightly different topic than many of our regular water safety papers. Jody C. Gan, Julia Snegg, and William Harder, all from American University and all Masters swimmers, wrote "Swimming Pool Environment and Respiratory Health Issues Experienced by Masters Swimmers: Results from a Literature Review and Survey of United States Masters Swimming Clubs," after three of their non-smoking swim club members died from lung cancer. They surveyed other Masters Clubs around the country and reviewed the literature to determine whether they could discern any trends that might indicate whether otherwise-healthy Masters swimmers might be at risk due to environmental exposure from swimming in pools. You may find this an interesting read.

The fifth research article in this issue, "Promising Practices for Boating Safety Initiatives that Target Indigenous Peoples in New Zealand, Australia, the United States of America, and Canada," was authored by Mitchell Crozier and Audrey R. Giles, both from the University of Ottawa in Canada. It is a fascinating article that examines boating safety practices from around the globe that are being promoted to reduce the drowning deaths among Indigenous peoples. It pulls together information from several other publications that have recently appeared in IJARE. You will want to read it.

Another excellent research study, "Factors Impacting Swimming Participation and Competence: A Qualitative Report," comes to us from Todd E. Layne (University of Memphis), Carol C. Irwin (University of Memphis), Jennifer Renee Pharr (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Richard L. Irwin (University of Memphis). This study is an extension of an earlier study, Ross et al. (2014) published in IJARE and supported by a grant from USA Swimming. These authors are extending what we know about parents' perceptions of why they have their children take swimming lessons.

A long awaited research article, "Features of Acceleration and Angular Velocity Using Thigh IMUs during Walking in Water," comes to us from authors Koichi Kaneda (Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan), Yuji Ohgi (Keio University, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Japan), plus Mark McKean and Brendan Burkett (both from University of Sunshine Coast, Australia). This study explored the use of IMU technology as an alternative to high speed video to calculate kinematic variables such as leg angular velocity and acceleration during water (and land) walking.

A final research article, "Cardiovascular and Stride Frequency Differences During Land and Aquatic Treadmill Walking," comes to us from a group of researchers from the University of Alabama at Huntsville including Jessica Burton, Sarah Duffey, Amber Hammonds, Anna LeDuc, Rachel Shumate, John Coons (Middle Tennessee State University), and Ryan T. Conners (also University of Alabama, Huntsville). This study examines both physiological and biomechanical measures during walking exercise in and out of the water and has some important discoveries.

Educational Articles

The first educational article comes from Susan Grosse, Milwaukee, WI, USA. Susan is a specialist in adapted aquatics. Her paper, "Swim Instruction for Individuals with Developmental Coordination Disorder," is one of those backlogged manuscripts that should have been published much earlier. Regardless, for those who may not be familiar with DCD, I think you will find this to be a very "educational" article from an author who has extensive experience and publications relative to DCD.

A second educational article, "Staff Training in Aquatics for Individuals with Disabilities: The Quest," also was authored by Susan Grosse. This article addresses the needs for focused training for those instructors who work with individuals with disabilities. The article describes the history of how most aquatic agencies have stopped offered specialized instructor courses (a.k.a., adapted aquatics) and instead have incorporated them within normal instructor training under the category of inclusion. The problem has been that inclusion helps instructors with individuals who have very mild disabilities, but does not prepare them sufficiently for working with more severe cases of cerebral palsy, autism, or other physical or cognitive impairments.

The third educational article comes to us from Canada (as did the fifth research article) authored by Michelle E.E. Bauer and Audrey R. Giles (both from University of Ottawa) plus Justina Marianayagam (Northern Ontario School of Medicine) and Kelli M. Toth (UnderwayUSA). The paper is entitled "Kids Don’t Float…and Their Parents Don’t Either: Using a Family-Centered Approach in Alaska’s Kids Don’t Float Program." The paper describes the ideas being promoted to prevent boating-related drownings among indigenous peoples in Alaska by using a novel family-oriented approach. It has interesting information for others interested in drowning prevention.

A final education article for this issue comes from the California State Parks as authored by Parks' employees (William A. Koon (also University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), Ryan M. Gates, Shane Scoggins, Paul Andrus, and Jack A. Futoran). They composed an outstanding lifeguarding training report, "The Ocean Lifeguard Intervention Continuum: A Cognitive Aid for Surf Lifeguard Education," as part of their efforts to improve lifeguard training especially for newly-hired guards. The process they used will be of interest to other lifeguard training programs.

I urge readers to stay safe, enjoy good health, and keep reading!

Steve Langendorfer

Founding Editor