Children suffering from concussions are getting a helping hand, as the Montreal Children’s Hospital’s trauma centre has updated their concussion kit, with new sections that could help them get back to class.
The kit, which is the third the centre has released, contains information on the prevention, management and recognition of concussions, said unit trauma director Debbie Friedman.
“It’s designed to help people, not just the general public, but professionals, coaches, sporting associations understand what a concussion is in youth and what are some of the considerations that need to be taken,” she said.
While the kit features new sections on the general management of concussions and sports-specific brain injuries, Friedman said what might be the most important is a new section aimed at concussed children returning to school.
“When we think of children, they spend a great deal of their day in school and we’ve had a tremendous amount of demand from teachers and educators on how to return these children to school. As opposed to a child with a broken arm or a leg, where it’s a visible injury, with a concussion, that’s not the case,” she said.
Among the recommendations are a few days of a rest for a child who suffers a concussion, followed by half-days as the child reintegrates into the classroom.
“What we say is, there’s no exams, no presentations, no tests for the first two weeks, to give the child a chance to reintegrate into the school environment, to acclimatize themselves but not have the pressure of the workload and then gradually individually increase what they can do over the subsequent period of time,” said Friedman.
