‘Supervise your child’ is the message given to parents and carers of young children when talking about drowning prevention, but what exactly does it mean?

“Supervision means being within arms reach of your child whenever they are in, on or around water,” said Ken Chandler, executive director of Royal Life Saving QLD.

“The weekend drowning of a three-year-old girl on the Gold Coast is a tragic reminder how important it is for parents and carers to constantly supervise children whenever they are near water.

“Many people have different ideas of what supervision means, but everyone needs to be aware that it is not listening out for your child, glancing up occasionally while you do other tasks and definitely not leaving an older child to supervise a younger sibling.

“Drowning deaths can occur in the time it takes to answer the doorbell, run and get a change of clothes or make a cup of coffee. Drowning is swift and silent which is why parents must be within arms reach of young children in water,” he said.

It is also important for children to participate in water familiarisation and learn to swim classes from an early age. Royal Life Saving advocates that infants should participate in water familiarisation classes from six months of age.

Parents should also ensure their children’s learn to swim classes incorporate important water safety information. Programs such as Royal Life Savings Swim and Survive which is run at swim schools around QLD give children vital water safety skills.

Supervision checklist for parents:

• before you start any aquatic activity – a swim in the backyard pool, a bath – make sure you have all the equipment you need such as towels or a change of clothes so you do not need to go back into the house • if you do need to leave the area for any reason take your child with you

• familiarise your child with water, an infant aquatics class is a great place to gain water confidence • learn CPR – enrol in a class today

• let the phone ring or put on the answering machine

Details: www.royallifesaving.com.au