Project

Promoting Sport Safety: An Educational Resource for Concussion Awareness among High School Athletes

In recent times, awareness of the risks associated with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), commonly referred to as concussion has come to the forefront. In a time where the topic of concussion is at an all-time high with professional athletes in the National Football League (NFL), it is critical to discuss concussions at the high school level when adolescents are still growing. Organized sports in high school are beneficial for a variety of reasons, but high school sports do not come without risk. Physical education should place an increased importance on educating the participants of the risks and misconceptions associated with concussion. One common misconception about concussion is that one must lose consciousness in order to have sustained a concussion. However, continuing to play sports while experiencing concussion symptoms carries significant risks, including death. While there are many reasons why athletes do not report their concussion symptoms including: fear of the coach, losing playing time, losing the game, and not appearing tough; the reason should not be due to a lack of education. Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are particularly well suited to inform athletes on concussion due to their depth of education on long-term cognitive and communication risks associated with traumatic brain injury. High Schools serving students in this age range would benefit from a structured curriculum developed to educate athletes about sport safety, including concussion. Six key components have been developed as the learning curriculum in order to educate athletes about mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) as well as the cognitive and communication factors affected by mTBI. This education expands the current concussion information sheet given in a sports packet to fulfill Education code 49475 desiring athletes to be educated on concussion each year through consent forms signed by both the parent and student athlete.

Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.