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
I became interested in ISR when our daughter was a fearless water-seeking toddler. Unfortunately, the closest instructor was a 75-minute drive, and I couldn't commit at the time. So we tried the traditional swimming lesson route but were quickly turned away because she wasn't 3 years old. Knowing that drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in children ages 1-4, I decided to become an instructor myself and fill the void in Northern Colorado!
My love of swimming started at a young age with competitive club and high school swim teams. I swam 3 years at Northern Arizona University and 2 years at Colorado State University, where I acquired a BS in Exercise Science. I then spent several years coaching age group and college swimmers before returning to medical school to obtain my MS in Occupational Therapy from Washington University in St. Louis. My husband and I lived in Alaska for five years, where I provided OT services to children between 6 months and 18 years of age. We currently reside in Johnstown, CO, with a 5-year-old mermaid, a happy 1-year-old floater, and a 12-year-old labrador who also loves the water! I believe I bring a unique combination of skills to the pool with my background in child development and occupational therapy and my extensive ISR training. In addition, I am passionate about water safety and am grateful to contribute to ISR's mission of 'Not One More Child Drowns' in Northern Colorado!
-Alyson Millner, OTR/L, Certified ISR Instructor, Owner of ISR of Northern Colorado, LLC
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