PADI / SSI Junior Open Water Theory

[Angelo Farina]

It's not odd. PADI/SSI OWD materials are already really dumbed down. There is a minimum you should know in order to dive safely. And that minimum pretty much is the OWD class.
Having taught a number of kids, I think 12 years is already very young... too young for some if not most kids. I would not do a class with kids under 12. The issue is not that they can't learn the motor skills (usually easier for them than many for many people over 50) or even the physics (even though some adults have issues with some of it), the issue is that young kids are not good at judging what's dangerous.
The danger when climbing, skiing, mountain biking, etc is very apparent to kids, in scuba diving, it's not.

Many of the +50 year old diver have too much fear and young kids too little. A kid can't really be a buddy, a kid needs to be watched by a very solid and attentive diver. IMHO, 20 - 30 feet should be the max depth for kids under 14 or 15...

The experience with my sons (that started at 18 months using a small tank in the pool) is that children are very cautious and aware of dangers when aged 5 to 8. That for me is the best age for introducing them to dangerous sports. In fact both my sons had their first real scuba dives in the sea only after 5 y.o. - same for free diving, motocross, mountain climbing, alpine ski, etc.
After 9 y.o. many children become too adventorous and over-confident and tend to underestimate risks.
This goes worse and worse, the worst is around 14 y.o.: at that age many youngsters do not follow adult's instructions, they feel invincible and are in a real danger.
That is the reason for which I suggest parents to introduce their sons to dangerous activities when they are very young (5 to 8).
If they do not become proficient in these activities before being 9, then better to suspend the activities until major age (18).
Starting scuba diving at 10÷12 y.o. is a bad age, in my opinion.

 

[TMHeimer]

I got my son certified at 12 since I felt he was physically and emotionally ready to deal with whatever came up. He's been a dinghy sailor on Lake Michigan since he was 6, so I knew he could handle a little adversity without freezing or falling apart.

I shared your concern about instructor to student ratio though, so I paid for a private course. The price wasn't that much higher and I feel it was money well spent.

I suppose there are very rare exceptions. Having taught maybe a thousand 11-12 aged band students, I wouldn't have wanted to see the most mature of these on scuba. But I digress to an old topic.

 

[berndo]

@Angelo Farina Most of the time I agree with what you post, but not about this. It might have been OK for your kids, of course I don't know. Generally, I believe it's better and safer so wait until a kids is older. Being from Italy and having instructor parents, I sure your kids had more time in the water than other kids too.

 

[Angelo Farina]

@Angelo Farina Most of the time I agree with what you post, but not about this. It might have been OK for your kids, of course I don't know. Generally, I believe it's better and safer so wait until a kids is older. Being from Italy and having instructor parents, I sure your kids had more time in the water than other kids too.

That was the other point I wanted to remark: children should taught by their parents, I cannot see how I could have allowed to another instructor to be responsible for my sons!
It must also be said that my wife is not just a "normal" diving instructor, she trained and was certified as a child instructor, for children of 3 years and above.
These favourable conditions are not common, of course, and so I understand that for mist parents this cannot be easily replicated.
But my concept remain solid: if the child has not been introduced to scuba diving during the optimal age (5 to 8), it is quite dangerous to begin at 10 or 12.
At that point I agree with you that is better to wait at least he/she is 16 .
Which was the age when I followed my first scuba diving course, in 1975.

 

[scubajasonr]

Both my kids completed their JOW at 10 years old. With both of them we worked through the elearning with them, and spent time discussing any of the more tricky sections. My son is dyslexic, so he would have struggled if just left alone to the elearning. We probably did this over the course of a month, so taken at a very easy pace before the JOW dives. In sections were the course material was very dry, I tried to find more interesting ways of covering the subject. Both kids completed their courses on a 1-2-1 basis with an instructor, in warm blue water, which makes it a lot easier. They both had a reasonable bit of pool diving experience before the course, so the diving bit I think they found fairly easy.

 

[cwbrown]

So I have a 9 year old who is slowly getting to 10 and is very keen to undertake either PADI or SSI open water course. My wife and I have had him in a pool undertaking various drills mask off, controlled buoyancy and all that sort of good stuff. In the water I have very little concern with his abilities and his abilities to learn whats needed, he is a natural water baby and has never let anything water based beat him. If something in the water scares him be it big waves etc, he is more than willing to listen and learn on how to deal with it safely.
My concern is the theory side of things, like myself he is not naturally academic and generally requires things worded alternatively than what is written in general text books. Saying this he is not stupid in any sense of the word, just needs things worded differently, I have the same issue in life. My question is, do PADI or SSI reword the Junior Open Water course for children / younger persons. OR is it the exact same course?
I'm hoping to speak to two potential instructors to do the course face to face privately. In the mean time any knowledge on this matter is greatly appreciated. Problem we face is he is very very keen to do this, but we have a little fear he will struggle greatly with the theory and don't want him getting too far in to something, not be ready, fail the theory and get very discouraged. We are tempted by leaving him another year. But want to see what the children's course is like whilst we have the time

GDH - May I share my experience providing the opportunity for my two grandchildren to become certified Junior divers. As of 2023, SSI has totally redesigned their Junior Open Water course designed to interest and engage today's youth divers. My first youth diver, now 14, used the previous SSI Junior Open Water Course. My newest diver, age 10, enjoyed the new interactive and relevant SSI Explorer Course. It is great.
My decision to allow my grands to begin their certification at age 10 was made because my local dive shop offers an outstanding summer program that introduces kids to diving at age 8. Both of my children completed 3 years of summer programs before starting the Open Water Course. My Dive Shop also offers year round monthly meetings for youth divers so that they can maintain and practice their skills. This year my granddaughter, age 10, chose to complete the SSI Explorer course, online, so that she could complete her certification and do her open water dives on a family trip to Roatan. She was ready and prepared to become a junior diver. It all depends on the child and the program!

 

[Rob9876]

My concern is the theory side of things, like myself he is not naturally academic and generally requires things worded alternatively than what is written in general text books. Saying this he is not stupid in any sense of the word, just needs things worded differently, I have the same issue in life.

There are smart phone apps that provide quiz questions on OW academic topics and explain the answers. My teenage son and I used a couple (one free, one $5 or so I believe) before our OW class. It made learning the academic portion a little more approachable -- we took turns asking each other the questions, then read through the explanations. We actually did this before getting our OW books, and it was helpful.

 

[Angelo Farina]

GDH - May I share my experience providing the opportunity for my two grandchildren to become certified Junior divers. As of 2023, SSI has totally redesigned their Junior Open Water course designed to interest and engage today's youth divers. My first youth diver, now 14, used the previous SSI Junior Open Water Course. My newest diver, age 10, enjoyed the new interactive and relevant SSI Explorer Course. It is great.
My decision to allow my grands to begin their certification at age 10 was made because my local dive shop offers an outstanding summer program that introduces kids to diving at age 8. Both of my children completed 3 years of summer programs before starting the Open Water Course. My Dive Shop also offers year round monthly meetings for youth divers so that they can maintain and practice their skills. This year my granddaughter, age 10, chose to complete the SSI Explorer course, online, so that she could complete her certification and do her open water dives on a family trip to Roatan. She was ready and prepared to become a junior diver. It all depends on the child and the program!

That is the correct approach. Children should begin to breath underwarer before they are 9. This summer program appears to be the perfect approach. Only after two or three years of these guided explorative activities, they become ready for certification
Starting straight from 0 to junior Advanced Open Water, perhaps in 2 weeks, is not the good way for children.
It works for adults, but children are different. They need time... And better to begin as early as possible, with very light tasks, possibly around 5 or 6 y.old, as I did with my sons.
They were certified at 12, having 6 years of soft and safe giuded diving experience, both in the pool and in the summer vacations at sea.

 

[scubaozy]

My personal recommendation is not jowd but jsd. Scuba diver course requires direct supervision after certification by a professional and 12 meters depth limit, imho this is a good thing until the age of say 15-16. Here another advantage of JSD; final examination is not needed, this makes the theory for a child breeze.
I can't say I am an authority in teaching children as I have certified < 10 children but what stayed with me was, girls are both physically and mentally more mature, so, setting default age limits are not very constructive as 10 yo is not same between genders.
I also remember children of younger age did not have it so easy on section 4 and 5 of the theory, with tables mostly. Nowadays tables are not mandatory, hopefully this will make it easier.

 

[Doc]

I, too, was a “water baby” and started on SCUBA at 6 years of age.

“Theory”, that is- the understanding of the science was irrelevant. I did understand limits of behaviors.

I also grew up in the country, so I understood the concept of death.

Don’t do this, don’t do that, or you could easily die.

That, i did understand. Tell them what they can understand, it has to be enough to keep them safe under appropriate supervision.

12 years of that and I got a c-card.

Then i became aware and interested in teenage boy stuff, like exploding goats.

Stuff that i could wrap my brain around.