Eight-year-old Samuel Marinho is making headlines that his parents Patricia and Alex never expected. In September, the youngster won silver medals in freestyle and backstroke events at the state championships for the Special Olympics in Sebastian, Florida after learning to swim through the adaptive swim instruction program at the YMCA of South Palm Beach County and finding success in regional meets.
As a toddler, Samuel was always attracted to the water, and when he turned 3, his mother signed him up for group swimming lessons.
“I don’t swim, and I wanted him to learn so he could be safe,” Patricia recalls. The lessons didn’t go as expected. Samuel was having a hard time with the setting and unable to fully participate in the class, so his parents withdrew him.
Shortly after, they enrolled their son in preschool and experienced some of the same behaviors.
“His teacher thought maybe he was too young, but he wasn’t,” Patricia says. They tried three more schools before a teacher suggested that perhaps Samuel was autistic.
The concerned parents took their son for evaluation and doctors confirmed the diagnosis. Samuel was high functioning, but on the autism spectrum. Samuel is intelligent and eager to learn—he loves figuring out how his bicycle and other mechanical things work. He’s thriving as a homeschooled student who studies Latin, drumming, and takes therapeutic horseback riding lessons. But, learning environments where neurotypical children thrive are often difficult for him.
Enter the Y’s adaptive swim instruction program. Referred to by a friend, the Marinhos had to wait months for an opening for the program at the Peter Blum YMCA in Boca Raton. Once Samuel got in the water, his instructors, Coach Miguel Blanco and Jeff Burgazzoli delivered lessons in a manner suited to Samuel’s learning style.
“If he has a moment where he’s not cooperative, the coach realizes it’s not because he’s misbehaving, it’s because his processing is different,” Patricia says. “They have tools to work on the process.”
When the Marinhos relocated from their home in Broward County to one in western Lake Worth, they continued to travel to the Boca pool until the DeVos-Blum YMCA in Boynton Beach launched its adaptive swim team program, which they now recommend to other families with children on the autism spectrum.
Samuel is finding success as a competitive swimmer, but his mom notes that even that requires some adaptation. Her son can be unnerved in unfamiliar surroundings, so she tries to give Samuel time to adjust, reminding him that they will travel in a car for a certain amount of time to reach the new pool. She tries to arrive a day early, so he can swim in the pool and become familiar with the surroundings before the competition day.
“Change for Samuel is very hard,” she says. “We have behavior challenges. We have anxiety. When people see a child with autism, they might think that he’s just behaving badly. Here, we have a community where people have compassion and understand us. Here, they see Samuel’s heart. Here, I can relax.”
And here, Samuel and other children like him, know what it means to win.
Story by DeVos-Blum Family Y Board Member, Kelley Marcellus