Experts have warned parents they risk their child taking "one step forward, two strokes back" without consistent exposure to the water.
The warning comes as a swim school operator expresses concern that young children are being withdrawn from lessons for a long period after taking part in classes for infants.
Parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson also warned against complacency, stressing that children learning only the basic swimming skills like how to float or tread water is "simply not enough".
Dr Coulson said with warmer weather on the way, it was important that children were confident in the water.
"Having a child who knows how to swim means more than knowing the basics," he said.
Dr Coulson said three and four were particularly difficult ages for children when learning to swim, even when they had enjoyed their initial exposure to the water.
He said for children who were just starting lessons or getting back in the water again after a long break, it was important to go slow and focus on enjoyment and comfort.
In the lead-up to summer Dr Coulson has teamed up with Kingswim, which operates three swim schools in the ACT, to warn it could be a case of "one step forward, two strokes back" if children don't take part in consistent lessons while learning to swim.
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Staff at Kingswim's centres have noticed parents increasingly failing to enrol their children in classes that teach swimming strokes and survival skills.
Kingswim area manager Anne Brown said starting lessons early was crucial, but so too was consistency.
She said many children were starting the relaxed and less structured "baby play" program, then taking a long break from the water before doing more structured and independent lessons.
"Taking a break from swimming lessons before children have graduated can lead to children returning to square one - losing skills previously mastered, losing confidence and their feel for the water," Ms Brown said.
"To develop their ability, children need constant exposure to the water, which is why it's so important to start early and stick with it."
Ms Brown acknowledged that every child's ability was different, but said the key to learning was practice and consistency.
Dawn Conroy, whose five-year-old grandson Daevlin recently started swimming lessons at Majura Park, said learning to swim was "of great importance".
She encouraged parents to enrol their children in lessons as early as possible so they got used to the water and learnt from professionals.
"As a grandma, I'm paranoid about the children being able to swim, especially with so many people they might visit after school having a swimming pool these days," she said.
A world-first national building census conducted by Canberra company PSMA Australia last year revealed there were pools in 7 per cent of ACT backyards.
Hadi Ghasemi, whose 5-year-old son Ryan also does swimming lessons at Majura Park, said the classes were an important investment in Ryan's future that could one day save his life.
He said Ryan had been doing lessons since he was one year old.
"I thought he would be more comfortable with the water [if he started lessons at a young age]," Mr Ghasemi said.
"I didn't have the opportunity [to do lessons] when I was young because I am an immigrant, but in Australia I think it's absolutely necessary for children to know how to swim."
Cost is a barrier to many children learning to swim through lessons at private swim school. A 2018 Royal Life Saving Australia report found the average cost of a lesson to be $15.50. Based on an average of 27 lessons being needed before a child with no previous swimming experience could swim 50 metres, this added up to a cost of $418.50.
"This is a substantial time and financial cost regardless of socio-economic status," the report said.
Some learn to swim programs are available through schools, and Royal Life Saving ACT's most recent published annual report, from 2016-17, shows more than 9000 children from ACT primary schools received lessons that year.
As revealed by the Sunday Canberra Timeslast summer, the rate of Canberra primary school children in those programs able to swim to the national water safety benchmark had declined.
Fewer than one in 10 were able to reach the standards set out by the Australian Water Safety Council in 2016-17. While the percentage is low, it is important to note that the standards only set out what children should be able to achieve by the end of primary school, rather than milestones specific to their age.
