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 DeAndrea Thompson, and I became a certified instructor with Infant Swim Resource in June of 2023. My husband, Michael, and I have been married for almost a decade. We have four children who are active in sports and church activities. We attend Connect Church in Decatur, AL, where I serve in the infant nursery every Sunday morning and Wednesday night.

I have an Associate's degree in Criminal Justice from Wallace State. Although, I have been blessed to be a homemaker, along with a few other roles, for the last six years. 

Becoming an ISR instructor has allowed me to combine two of my life's passions: being in the water and nurturing children. Watching students become skilled floaters and swimmers is a true joy. 

I am proud to be able to offer this resource to the Cullman area. 

If you have any questions about ISR or want to learn how to register for a session, please get in touch with me.

I look forward to meeting all my new swimmers soon!

-DeAndrea Thompson, Certified ISR Instructor, Owner of Cullman ISR

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