Parents are critical participants in the recognition and treatment of, and recovery from, a concussion, not only in the first 24 to 48 hours but during every step in the process towards an eventual return to the play.
Return to learn is just as important as return to play, says a top neuropsychologist and it is important to assess a child's individual symptoms and what triggers them to determine what adjustments to the school day are appropriate.
Child-specific tools need to be developed and used for the diagnosis, recovery-assessment and management of their concussions, focusing less on return to play as the goal as return to learn, a new study recommends.
Outsmarting or "sandbagging" a baseline neuropsychological test is much harder than an athlete may think, say two recent studies, because they are programmed to automatically "flag" test protocols that seem suspicious.
Sports concussion neuropsychologist Rosemarie Scolaro Moser, Ph. D.
provides an overview of the concussion evaluation and management process
leading, hopefully, to a student-athlete's return to sports:
Kids, Sports and Concussions sets the gold standard for books on
sports-related concussions. It covers everything a sports parent and
coach needs to know about concussions - and more, says MomsTeam founder and publisher, Brooke de Lench.
Scores on a test commonly used to assess concussions on the sport sideline vary by an athlete's gender and concussion history, reports a new study. Establishing an individual baseline for each youth athlete
in contact and collision sports is therefore critical to proper management of a
subsequent concussion and the timing for safe return to play.
On June 16, 2011, North Carolina governor BevPerdue signed the Gfeller-Waller Concussion Awareness Act, adding the state to the list of twenty-three states that have enacted strong youth sports concussion safety laws since the first such law was passed in May 2009.