Hello, and welcome to Living In The Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

With summer comes a focus on water safety.

Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in young children, according to the CDC.

But a Lehigh Valley swim teacher aims to equip kids with the skills they need to stay afloat.

Swim season is upon us, and for many parents, one thing is top of mind when little ones are around water.

- The number one thing is safety, so they learn how to swim safely.

If they fall in, you don't have to worry about them drowning.

- And drowning is one of the biggest fears of many people with young children.

- I know it can happen in a second.

- That's why Nina Arroyo signed her son up for ISR swim lessons at the Jewish Community Center in Allentown.

- Myself as a mother, I'm not anxious any more like I was.

- ISR stands for Instant Swimming Resources.

It's a program that teaches water survival skills to children.

- We don't want to teach them how much fun it is and then don't give them the skills to survive it if they end up there alone.

- Michelle Bussiere is a certified ISR instructor and the JCC aquatics director.

She says supervision is the first layer of protection for children around water.

Having an adult in the water with the child is the first thing she teaches parents.

- That was a great swim!

Water's absolutely everywhere, and drowning is the number one cause of accidental death for children under age four.

And it's completely preventable, so we really need to educate ourselves and protect our children, because one of the number one reasons a child may not enter kindergarten is because that child drowned.

- She explains it's important for children to learn how to swim without a flotation device, because they give a false sense of security.

- We take it off, we think we're done, and then we unfortunately sometimes find our children in the water right after because they just jumped in 100 times having fun with this flotation device on and they don't understand that that's not going to work without it.

- Bussiere also says how we dress our children for water play can save their lives.

- You definitely want to be dressing your children in really bright colors.

Neon orange is the winner.

That is definitely the brightest color, and it really sticks out and catches the eye really quickly.

But any type of neon, like a hot pink, neon green, any type of reds, yellows, those are the best colors to dress your child in, because you are going to be able to spot your child in the water, underwater, even just a few feet underwater.

- The swim instructor says earth tones like blues, greens and grays disappear when they are submerged.

She says a person who is drowning is hard to spot and it's often very silent, so being able to see your kid easily is key.

- Having the proper type of survival skills and knowing CPR, locking any entry to a waterway, doors, windows, having an alarm on the water, things like that are all going to help prevent these drowning accidents from happening.

- ISR sessions are one on one for ten minutes a day five days a week for six weeks and teach water survival skills in that time period.

Many of the parents in Bussiere's current sessions are amazed at their child's progress.

- He went from not understanding how to lay still and float to floating, and then he went from not being able to kick his feet to then kick his feet.

- Saving the lives of little people around water is something Michelle Bussiere takes very seriously.

- Good job!

I want parents to think about water like they would the street, a busy street.

We would never teach our children to go play in the street.

We teach them safety first.

So if we're going to be around the water, we need to make sure that we're teaching them how to be safe in the water.

Good job!

Look at you!

- Again, Bussiere says supervision is the first layer of protection for children around water, and having an adult in the water with the child is the first thing she teaches parents.

That will do it for this edition of Living In The Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.