Learning to swim 'could make children smarter'

Queensland researchers believe that learning to swim could make children smarter.

A Griffith University research project will examine over 10,000 kids aged up to five to find out if swimming advances physical, social, intellectual and language development.

Professor Robyn Jorgensen said anecdotal evidence found swimmers tended to be more confident than same-age, non-swimming peers.

She said the study was in its second year and is measuring the development of youngsters learning to swim against international milestones of child development.

"The preliminary data is coming back quite positive," News.com.au quoted her as saying.

"Children in swimming schools appear to be more advanced in terms of their development," she added.

Jorgensen said the research would also monitor young swimmers at 60 swim schools across Australia and cross-reference the results with the earlier surveys.

"Then we'll take a smaller sample of children and test them against the milestones," she said.