PADI / SSI Junior Open Water Theory

[GDHLEWIS]

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

 

[Belzelbub]

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 can only answer regarding SSI, though I expect the same is true for PADI. It’s the same course. The academics are the same, and the dives can be as well. As a Jr OWD, the dives aren’t supposed to go to 60’, but otherwise the same

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.

Good plan. You probably just need to allow sufficient time to get through the academics. The instructor should then go through the materials before the written test. With the increasing popularity of dive computers, in many cases, the academics are not as hard. Some go through tables, some don’t.

If he is as excited about it as it sounds, I’m sure he’ll get through it fine.

 

[Scuba Scott]

For PADI, the training materials are the same. I would expect the same for all agencies but someone from SSI will have to verify.
Don't make the assumption that the online training is the beginning and end of the academic portion. Classroom training is still possible and the instructor can tailor that to the student. The instructor should also be involved in online training. The instructor is expected to know how to teach all the material. Choose an instructor who is willing to work with your son.
If your instructor is unable to articulate how he will deal with your son's learning needs to your satisfaction just move on to a different instructor. The training materials are barely relevant if you can find the right instructor. The answer will never be PADI or SSI because it depends on the individual instructor.

 

[grassgreen]

I would say, "why the rush to get the kid certified"?
So yeah of course he wants to be able to to go diving, but he doesn't have to be certified for that.
A good Discover Scuba diving experience with a little bit of buoyancy work aswell will get him diving. Most of the theory and extra skills are to make somebody self sufficient. A junior can't go without a certified professional anyway and no parent that is diving with their own 10 year will be more than an arms reach away and not taking their eyes off them for a split second either...also their maximum depth is still the same. Let them learn just what they need to go on the nice easy dives they would do anyway, gain experience as they go along. I personally wouldn't teach OW to anyone less than 15 years old, there is just no point. Getting their little fingers to properly disconnect a self inflating inflator hose is pointless...they can't do it plus the realistic action would be the DM or parent would be there and do it anyway. Not to mention trying to teach them physics air volume etc. Only people who will benefit are dive shops and agencies..
Get them diving, equalising, mask, reg, buoyancy maybe sharing air....the rest when they are older.

 

[GDHLEWIS]

Thanks all, Instructors of a decent caliber are very thin on the ground in Qatar. Most are just money sharks I wouldn't trust with a bread knife to butter toast with. One or two Im in talks with, but will see how it goes. Found some PADI Open water videos online so will just try him on that the next few weeks, see how much of it he grasps and go from there.

 

[GDHLEWIS]

I would say, "why the rush to get the kid certified"?
So yeah of course he wants to be able to to go diving, but he doesn't have to be certified for that.
A good Discover Scuba diving experience with a little bit of buoyancy work aswell will get him diving. Most of the theory and extra skills are to make somebody self sufficient. A junior can't go without a certified professional anyway and no parent that is diving with their own 10 year will be more than an arms reach away and not taking their eyes off them for a split second either...also their maximum depth is still the same. Let them learn just what they need to go on the nice easy dives they would do anyway, gain experience as they go along. I personally wouldn't teach OW to anyone less than 15 years old, there is just no point. Getting their little fingers to properly disconnect a self inflating inflator hose is pointless...they can't do it plus the realistic action would be the DM or parent would be there and do it anyway. Not to mention trying to teach them physics air volume etc. Only people who will benefit are dive shops and agencies..
Get them diving, equalising, mask, reg, buoyancy maybe sharing air....the rest when they are older.

More like the kids wants to get certified as he wants to dive with me and a couple of his friends who just got certified. We planned to spend a fair few weekends in the pool with him over the next 6 months to get him up to a reasonable level with practical drills (for his age). Hopefully the two Instructors I'm talking to will be good enough for the task. Otherwise its gonna be a wait until we go on our next holiday and we will have to find a decent instructor then.

 

[McmScuba]

Whether he goes for the certificate now or you decide to give him another year and maybe just go for discover scuba dives, YouTube and little experiments are really a great source to visually help understand the core concepts. I don't think it's necessary to use words like partial pressure or being able to read/interprate tables at this age. But once he understands the core concepts, things like NDL become also easy and logical. The good old soda bottle is just one of many demonstration tools. (a sodastream would be even better bc there you can observe how the gas gets pushed into the water and excess gas audibly gets out). I think in the SSI materials there are drawings of differently sized balloons to show the impact of pressure changes on volume at different depths. If you use real balloons to demonstrate this, he'll probably never forget that image/concept at all. Videos/images of gas as drawn molecules that can either float fairly far apart from each other or be squished together (hence you'd need more molecules to fill the same space) can help to make gas consumption, expansion and compression less abstract. Also, how much freedivers' lungs are compressed at depth and how that compares to scuba diving could be fascinating (or terrifying).

 

[rick00001967]

When i was teaching, i had a few young students. But i am not a fan of really young ones like yours doing the course. But thats me.
I will say however that the young fellas i certified, also had a very hard time with the tests.
This is understandable.
As the instructor i was confident in their water skills, and i knew they understood the majority of the academics. But it was difficult for them to read the questions as written, and then provide the correct answer. Eventhough i knew they knew they answer.
I worked with both, providing verbal questions in a way they understood what was beibg asked without leading them to the answer in anyway.
Both passed. One kept diving. The other never dived again after his open waters.

 

[gwklein]

PADI has a resource material on its Pro website that might be of interest to you. A PADI pro has to access the material but can give it to a parent for free. It is called Children and Scuba Diving: A Resource Guide for Instructors and Parents. It is Product No. 70099. The first three chapters cover the theory of how children learn. But you would probably be more interested in Chapter IV: Teaching Children to Dive, which is the practical aspects of teaching diving to children.

You might also be interested in a Diver Magazine article: 10 Tips For Teaching Kids To Dive - DIVER magazine

 

[GDHLEWIS]

PADI has a resource material on its Pro website that might be of interest to you. A PADI pro has to access the material but can give it to a parent for free. It is called Children and Scuba Diving: A Resource Guide for Instructors and Parents. It is Product No. 70099. The first three chapters cover the theory of how children learn. But you would probably be more interested in Chapter IV: Teaching Children to Dive, which is the practical aspects of teaching diving to children.

You might also be interested in a Diver Magazine article: 10 Tips For Teaching Kids To Dive - DIVER magazine

Thanks, its good to know that PADI has some understanding that children learn differently than Adults. To be honest I have found it odd that these dive agencies do not approach teaching younger individuals differently to teaching Adults. I have no doubt my child will understand the needed information if it was taught to him in the manner he is taught by teachers trained to teach children of his age. For example a teacher from a Secondary school would not be as good teaching younger children. Kids just learn differently at a younger age. Thankfully my wife is a early years teacher and a diver so she will be helping who ever we decide to teach our kid. This wont be a give our kid the answers exercise but she will be able to explain it better.
I think there is defiantly something being missed by these Agencies, the few instructors I have spoken to have admitted there is very little changes to the academia teaching style when dealing with Kids. Im sure there are Instructors out there that specialize in this area. But the Agencies really are missing a market in my view. I remember back in the day my local BSAC Branch has an instructor who was an early years teacher, all younger instruction was given to him and he had to re-write the BSAC instruction slides to accommodate younger divers & Snorkelers. It worked an absolute treat...I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for him in my diving journey.