Testimonials
I
have a 3 year old son, Angelo, with Autism and I was
very scared to place him in swim classes. Especially
after a bad experience and failed attempt at a local
Special Needs Group swimming class. Most children with
Autism have uncanny memories, and if this was another
bad learning experience, it would be almost certain to
set us back years in teaching him to swim.
Autistic children, in general, learn very well from
visuals, repetition, and from associating. Miss Julie's
lessons were PERFECT for this aspect of his learning
needs. She has a wonderfully entertaining DVD filled
with fun songs which my son memorized immediately.
Miss Julie came to meet and spend time with my Angelo
the week before lessons to develop a trust and a bond
with him and brought Mr. Blue along with her. She caught
my son's attention instantly and made the experience
interesting and fun for him right off the bat. Since
the songs in the DVD sing the lesson that is being taught,
and since we read the book everyday before the lessons
started, my son knew what to expect when it was time
to get into the water, no surprises to set him into a
panic.
Miss Julie exhibited the utmost care for my son's need
to feel secure in the water, constantly reassuring and
praising him during and after each lesson. Within 5 days..
he was swimming like a little fish...not just swimming,
diving to the bottom of the pool to pick up toys! She
also taught my 2 year old son to swim in the same time.
Yes, I watched my child with Autism learn to swim at
the same rate as my younger, typical child, using the
same exact lesson plan. This is something we rarely see
in our everyday world, and I was blown away. They still
watch the DVD, sing the songs, and my youngest son even
goes to sleep every night with his Mr. Blue and Po Po
toys. If anyone has a child on the Spectrum, I highly
recommend using Miss Julie. She has a natural ability
to get inside their world and it seems as if her lesson
plan was created just for children on the Spectrum. This
was not just a swim lesson, it was an amazing learn to
swim experience!
Thank you!
Rachael L. Baldassarra
President of MyKidsCounty.org, Inc.
I wanted to let you know that although I was your worst
parent participant... Payton is doing great!
Payton is diving for rockets and swimming above and
below the water and can swim from side to side without
assistance. She jumps into the deep end of the pool and
is not afraid to go under the water.
Thank You so much for giving her the skills to swim
and most of all survive. We swim every day and I am enjoying
the pool with Payton now the she can swim independently
and I do not have to be so fearful.
Thanks Again!
Laurie Ruehlman
My son was never a big fan of the pool from the time
he was very young. He was finally convinced to go in
by a Spiderman "floaty suit" that gave him
confidence in the water. He had no interest in leaving
it behind and saw absolutely no reason to learn to swim
without it. However, Julie was great at gaining his confidence
quickly and by day 3 he was swimming like a fish! It
was truly amazing to watch and he hasn't slowed down
since. He now loves to swim - not only in the pool but
in the ocean. He was actually riding a bike around a
friend's pool recently and accidentally fell in, fully
clothed, bike and all. Everyone commented about how calmly
he swam to the side and got out of the pool. He never
would have been able to do that without Julie's coaching.
Having her teach my son to swim was a great decision
on my part and I highly recommend her to anyone.
Liane Carmen
Sr. Marketing Activation Manager
Coca-Cola North America
There is no great feeling of peace for a parent to
know that your twin daughters who are not yet three years
old, would be perfectly capable of swimming to the edge
of the pool if they were to ever fall in. What an incredible
summer we had with our two year old daughters watching
them jump, splash and swim in the pool every day. The
learn to swim program was a great success for our family.
Brody Howell
Student Ministry Pastor
Calvary Chapel
Let me start off by saying that this swimming experience
was MAGICAL! Julie is an absolutely incredible and quite
talented person who was able to get our 3.5 year old
spirited and strong-willed daughter, Kayla to swim in
3 days. I am absolutely astonished at the quick progression
of Kayla's ability to swim. Being Bostonians, we don't
have the accessibility of pools and weather as in Florida
. We decided to hire Julie to teach Kayla to swim during
our week vacation in Florida. I have previously exposed
my three year old daughter for group swim lessons. I
can honestly say that the one on one attention and instruction
from Julie is so much more effective than these group
sessions. Julie always remains calm, and she moves Kayla
naturally and smoothly through each session. After the
second session, Kayla didn't cry during bathtime when
I poured water over her head. I saw progress so quickly.
Now bathtime is so much more enjoyable. And after all
the tears, screams, and anxiety seen in the third session,
Kayla went back into the pool with us an hour later and
was jumping and swimming to the wall as if she was doing
this for months. After witnessing our daughter move easily
from fear of the water to singing, laughing and jumping
in the pool, we decided to have Julie teach our 2 year
old. The DVD and book are excellent tools to assist with
the 5-day program. In addition to teaching our child
how to swim, Julie helped us become more aware of all
the safety issues. She took the time to educated my entire
family including my parents who own a pool and live on
the beach. We feel like we owe a lot to Julie. Money
seems irrelevant when it comes to the prevention of our
children drowning. We NEED to know that our children
will know what to do if they accidentally fall into the
pool. Thank you Julie for all that you have taught us.
We will never forget you! And we look forward to many
fun years of playing in the pool and ocean.
Stephanie and Jason Boggs
Boston, MA
When my Aunt told me about Julie from an article she
read I thought "yeah sure, another gimmick"!
As a divorced mother with a young son, I called Miss
Julie in a desperate attempt to get my almost 5 year
old to swim. He would go in the pool and hang on me or
my Aunt. Not allowing swimmy arms for a long time, he
hung on a tube. Finally he got arm swimmy's and that
was as far as he was going. I couldn't figure out why
my super smart kid wouldn't swim or even attempt to try
it. When I called Miss Julie, I could feel her confidence
but couldn't imagine how she could teach my son when
I could not, and I am a great swimmer. The price
knocked me off the chair but I knew she was the one!
I wasn't sure what to do. Then I realized that my sons
life was at risk every day because he didn't know how
to swim, especially here in Florida. I would've been
devasted or worse if anything ever happened to him.
I decided to hire her to teach my son how to swim
and you know what? I thank God every day for bringing
herinto our lives!! On the very 1st day, my
son was swimming. The fear was gone! Just like that.
Every morning for 5 days, my son looked forward to learning
from Miss Julie. This is a real testimony. Feel free
to e-mail me if you have any questions. I truly believe
that it is worth every penny to hire Miss Julie to teach
your child how to swim. The peace of mind she
has afforded me is worth 1 million dollars and in hindsight,
I only wish I did this 4 years ago. I owe Miss Julie
my life and will be forever grateful.
Gina Savage
Fort Lauderdale, FL
During the summer of 2007 a very good friend of ours
offered to give our 2-year-old old son Brock swim lessons.
We no longer had a pool but we had a lot of friends and
family that do, so I was very aware of the need for lessons,
so I took her up on her offer. Her lessons are focused
on the safety side of swimming(i.e. how to get to the
edge if he were to fall in). She said she would work
with him for 5 days straight and at the end of those
5 days he would know how to get to the edge. Of course,
he was not fond of her the first couple days, but then
he got more and more used to her making him do the exercises
and at the end of the 5 days “voila” he could
do it. We were thrilled!!! We went to friends and family
members houses during that summer and worked with Brock
but once summer was over and school began, those outings
were no more and since we didn’t have a pool at
our home any longer, that repetition was gone. It was
several months again before we were in another pool and
he had forgotten what he had learned, or so I thought,
and we went back to putting a life vest on him whenever
he was near any body of water.
Fast forward to April 19th, 2008… when we were
invited to a friend’s house for a late afternoon
swim and dinner. Again, we had put a vest on Brock and
were enjoying the day swimming. As we prepared for dinner,
I had all of the other kids out of the pool. Our friends
have an outdoor shower so I had my other children showering
and getting ready for dinner. I always got Brock out
of the pool last because I could take his vest off and
would not have any other distractions from the other
kids. This time, no different, or so I assumed. Our 9
year old daughter was finishing her shower when I got
Brock out of the pool and took his vest off to put him
in the shower. However, his sister had not rinsed all
of the shampoo out of her hair, so I turned to assist
her. As I focused on that, everyone else was inside getting
ready for dinner, which is the direction Brock was heading
and I assumed he continued to go inside. It couldn’t
have been 20 seconds later and I heard God’s voice
say to me “TURN AROUND!!” I ignored that
voice 2 times (now knowing that if God ever wants to
get my attention, he can and will) and on the third time
I felt the urgency and turned around. It was then that
I saw my 2 year old son floating in the deep end of the
pool. I jumped in to retrieve him and lifted him up to
my girlfriend who was standing there waiting to receive
him. All I remember seeing as I lifted myself out of
the pool was my son’s face and lips being very
blue and his eyes wide open, but initially he wasn’t
crying or saying anything (I think he was in a state
of shock). By this time my husband had also come out
and quickly grabbed him. I then ran in to call 911 and
thank God, he started to cry. The paramedics came and
it was unbelievable how fast they arrived….they
were there in less than a minute.
The paramedics checked the oxygen level in his blood
and said it was at 99% but they recommend he be taken
to the ER to be checked out more thoroughly. By this
time, Brock had fallen asleep on my husband’s chest.
All the excitement exhausted him. The paramedics took
them both to the ER and I followed in our van. They did
an X-ray when he arrived, wanted to keep him in the ICU
overnight for observation, and do another X-ray the next
morning, to make sure no fluid builds up in the lungs.
Once again, we were thanking God…no fluid built
up and he was discharged the next morning.
When we asked Brock what he was doing in the deep end
of the pool without his life vest and his response was “I
was trying to get my shark toy Mom and I go like this”,
filling his cheeks with air and holding his breath. He
had some dive sticks that looked like sharks and either
he threw it in the deep end and went after it, or it
was already there and he wanted to retrieve it. Whatever
the case may be, he dove in after it and didn’t
get back to the edge but he had held his breath the whole
time. This explains why he turned so blue, so quickly.
It also explains why he was floating and had not sunk….he
had not ingested any water and therefore it didn’t
get in his lungs. He had remembered from his lessons
that prior summer to hold his breath. Thank you Jesus!!
We had Brock back in the pool two days later so that
he wasn’t afraid. A few weeks later, he took swim
lessons again, but this time with Julie Gross. Julie
gives music lessons to our other children and is awesome,
so we knew she would be amazing with him. She made the
learning fun for him. The difference this time was we
practiced with Brock several times a week all summer.
It was the beginning of summer, and we were watching
our friend’s house while they were away for the
summer, and they had a pool. That is the key to swim
lessons, practice, practice, practice!! Now, I call him
my little fish. He loves to go in the pool and “swim
like his big sister and brother”. We will never
be comfortable enough to turn our back, even if it’s
just for a second, but were comfortable knowing that
if he ever did fall in, he’d be able to get out.
I thank GOD constantly for sparing us the heartache
of something more severe and I thank Julie Gross for
giving us a lot more comfort now when were around water.
She is an amazing swim instructor!!
Kym Butler
Fort Lauderdale, FL
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