Friday Feature: National Concussion Awareness Day

As I was scrolling through my cache of articles trying to decide which one to write about, I discovered that today is National Concussion Awareness Day.

Bingo.

When I teach about brain development in my college classes, I always make it a point to discuss concussions. In an informal survey of my students, I discover on a regular basis that anywhere from half to two-thirds of them (depending on the class) have experienced at least one concussion.

While I find this a little frightening, I have to remind myself that when I was a kid, we never even thought about such things. If we hit our heads while we were playing, we gauged our injuries on the basis of bumps and pain. If we were hurt and/or had a bump, we chilled out for a bit with an cube wrapped in a wash cloth, then went back outside.

I don't mean to imply that we were made of tougher stuff -- I don't think that's the case. We just didn't know then what we know now -- that concussions are something to be taken seriously.

And as much as we do know now, we're still learning. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics revised its treatment guidelines, acknowledging that the wide variability in symptoms and circumstances across patients with concussions calls for a more nuanced treatment approach -- and more study.

For kids, the treatment can feel worse than the condition and so it's important to look at each one as an individual and prescribe treatment accordingly. Many kids -- athletes in particular -- are tempted to play through the discomfort, perhaps in part because acknowledging their symptoms might require them to sit on the sidelines. While individualized protocols won't lead every player to report symptoms, knowing that sitting out and staying screen-free isn't a foregone conclusion might help ease their reluctance.

We've come a long way in our understanding on this topic and, for my part, I will keep educating my students. Many of them will go on to work with children and adolescents and so they need to understand the importance of keeping those developing brains safe, even if it means they will be inconvenienced in the classroom and in the sports arena.

If we want our kids to be smarter than we were, we need to not only inform ourselves, but listen to them as well, and to arm ourselves with more than an ice cube and a wash cloth.