About
About ISR
Founded in 1966 by Dr. Harvey Barnett, Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) is now the global leader in the industry it pioneered: survival swimming lessons for infants and young children. Our team of more than 1,000 Certified ISR Instructors in more than 20 countries provides the safest and most effective survival swimming lessons available. The ISR Self-Rescue instruction our students receive today is the product of more than 50 years of research and development and has resulted in more than 15 million safe lessons worldwide.
ISR believes that pool fences, supervision, and pool alarms are important parts of a necessary multi-layered approach to drowning prevention. However, traditional lines of defense break down, and the over 4,000 drowning deaths per year bear a grim testament to the fact that traditional approaches are missing a key component: the child. ISR’s core conviction is that the child is the most important part of a drowning prevention strategy.
Children are curious, capable, and have an uncanny ability to overcome obstacles like pool fences; at ISR we take that ability and teach them skills to potentially save themselves if they find themselves in the water alone.
Meet Your Instructor
My name is Shelby Stephens, I was born and raised in Friendswood, TX, and I am so excited to serve my community!
My ISR journey started with our middle child. I was pregnant and we had a pool in the backyard. Our oldest daughter took years to get confident or, more importantly, competent in the water, and we just hadn't found a program comparable to ISR yet. I knew I had to do something different for our son. I had found a local instructor and communicated with her to get into lessons before he was even born! We started him in the ISR program at eight months old. After he completed his first session, he was able to roll back to his float while crying. ALL. BY. HIMSELF. This is the difference between ISR and any other program out there. Within seconds my baby boy could get into his float. If he were to ever find himself in a situation where he needed to use this life-saving skill, he had it! I was hooked on the program. The following year he was learning to swim. For four years, I was religious about refreshers. His progress every year was just awesome to watch. After a few years, I was asked if I would be interested in becoming an ISR Instructor, and I jumped at the amazing opportunity.
My husband and I have 3 children Tori (15), Cole (7) & Hazel (1). Our younger two children are both ISR babies.
Drowning is the leading cause of death in children ages one to four. As parents, we all know that there are sometimes just seconds that our kids get away from us quicker than we even realize they are gone. That's all it takes y'all. It's scary. Supervision and a skilled little one are the most portable lines of defense against drowning. So let's do something about it.
The sooner, the safer!
-Shelby Stephens, Certified ISR Instructor
Is your swim instructor a Certified ISR Instructor?
There are many instructors who say they teach ISR techniques, however, unless they are listed on the ISR Instructor locator on the official ISR website and meet the criteria below, they are NOT Certified ISR Instructors.
All Certified ISR Instructors:
Have an email address ending in @infantswim.com
Can provide parents with a copy of their current ISR Certificate for review
Offer lessons five consecutive days per week, for a maximum of 10 minutes each day
Will require your child to be registered through ISR’s Online Registration Process and approved to begin lessons by our Registration Evaluation Team (approval email will come from an email address ending in @infantswim.com)
Complete the Daily BUDS Discussion form with you prior to each lesson
Can be found on the instructor locator at locator.infantswim.com