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Keep Your Head in the Game: Dealing with Concussions
July 7, 2023
There’s room for all of you, and for everything you experience—the grim and the glorious, the wounded, wounding, healing and healed.
-Hiro Boga, writer, teacher, business strategist
-Hiro Boga, writer, teacher, business strategist
Summer often brings shifts in programming, enrollment, and staffing. Ensuring you’re up to speed on health and safety issues helps you make an informed and rapid response. The Exchange Essentials "Health and Safety First Aid Kit" covers a range of topics, from concussions to head lice. I’ve honestly scratched my head three times since writing this, so we’ll skip the lice and focus on concussions instead:
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “a concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, stretching and damaging the brain cells and creating chemical changes in the brain.”
This can and will occur without any visible signs of injury. The article notes, “Symptoms aid in the diagnosis of a concussion and since infants and toddlers cannot describe their symptoms, it makes it difficult to know that something is wrong. Thus, it is imperative that caregivers and parents be as descriptive as possible with explaining [to a doctor] the activity that resulted in the injury, as well as describing any behaviors exhibited by the child that are atypical for that child.”
Following a concussion, children’s brains especially need both cognitive and physical rest. The article continues, “The key to returning to daily activities is that any time an activity causes a recurrence of symptoms of the concussion (headache, fatigue, irritability, and so on) the activities need to stop to allow more time for healing.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “a concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, stretching and damaging the brain cells and creating chemical changes in the brain.”
This can and will occur without any visible signs of injury. The article notes, “Symptoms aid in the diagnosis of a concussion and since infants and toddlers cannot describe their symptoms, it makes it difficult to know that something is wrong. Thus, it is imperative that caregivers and parents be as descriptive as possible with explaining [to a doctor] the activity that resulted in the injury, as well as describing any behaviors exhibited by the child that are atypical for that child.”
Following a concussion, children’s brains especially need both cognitive and physical rest. The article continues, “The key to returning to daily activities is that any time an activity causes a recurrence of symptoms of the concussion (headache, fatigue, irritability, and so on) the activities need to stop to allow more time for healing.”
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsEugene, OR, United States
Thank you, Kim, for being an attentive and caring adult in the lives of children, and for your openness to new understandings. There are so many areas where I feel the same - "how could we not have known?" But I'm grateful for the chance to learn and adapt! What I gleaned from the article was to be attentive to the signs and then to be respectful of the healing process.
The Nueva School
Hillsborough, CA, United States
Thank you so much for writing about concussions and the need for rest! I wish there was more we could do. Concussions are serious. I’m embarrassed on how unaware I was when I worked daily with young children in childcare/preschool. We marveled at how children could trip, fall from not insignificant heights and bounce up to continue playing. Now I know to stop, pay attention, and make sure parents know about the fall.
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