Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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flashback to freshman year, I was a three season athlete
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competing to the best of my ability and loving sports.
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I played the very beginning of my sophomore year.
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That all changed Three weeks in the field hockey season.
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I took a ball right to my head, conveniently, just
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barely missing my goggles since I didn't pass out, I
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convinced my coaches and myself that I was fine to
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keep playing, but after just about 10 minutes I was
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so dizzy that I could barely see and I felt
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like I was going to be sick and staying at
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the same time 2.5 years later.
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Today, I sometimes still experience that same feeling from physical
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activity or even from school work.
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Many people don't realize that even modern concussions can have
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prolonged and even permanent physical and mental concussion effects following
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my injury.
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Both my athletic and academic high school life has been
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turned upside down by post concussion syndrome.
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My story is just one example of thousands of high
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schoolers who struggle with post concussion effects.
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My personal journey has motivated me to want to help
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other students who are also struggling with concussions and post
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concussion effects.
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I feel it is essential to prevent as many teenagers
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as possible from dealing with serious concussion effects, which I
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feel it would be best achieved by reforming school policies
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to aid students with concussions and related conditions.
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In addition to negative physical, athletic and mental health components
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are also a lot of academic limitations that a concussion
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or post concussion syndrome can impose on students in massachusetts,
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there are currently concussion protocols in place, but I have
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noticed several flaws in them.
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The biggest being that progression through the phases is based
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on time.
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Ultimately, I decided to create my own return to learn
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policy that I thought would be more helpful to students
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with concussions, post concussion syndrome or other related effects.
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My plan includes specific accommodations to help students be successful
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academically despite their condition and unlike other plans, progression through
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phases is based on student symptoms alone.
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I'm in the process of implementing my plan it into
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her high school and I want to help as many
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struggling students as possible and prevent as many head injuries
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as we can.
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The driving question for my project is what are the
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consequences and long term effects of a concussion?
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And how can we reduce the risk of these conditions?
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To answer this question, I explored these conditions more in
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depth through secondary research to find out how exactly a
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concussion leads to them.
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In addition to exploring how one can reduce the risk
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of getting further condition after concussion, I also really wanted
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to focus on helping those who already deal with these
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conditions to address this.
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My essential question is how can we reform school policies
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to aid students who are struggling with concussions and related
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effects in high intensity academic settings, both when returning to
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school and in the long term.
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In terms of my secondary research, there's a lot of
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research out there that explores the effects of concussions in
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the long term and the impact that these conditions can
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have on learning specific topics.
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Are diagnosis effects on learning.
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Return to learn approaches prevention strategies and the current laws
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and regulations that are in place.
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The sources helped to answer my driving an essential questions,
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but they also show what further research needs to be
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done and what additional school policies should be implemented to
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help students in return to learn experiences.
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The sources, I found are mostly medical references, scholarly journals
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and state document publications.
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A lot of the sources I found described post concussion
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effects and conditions.
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Doctors believe that any cognitive activity that negatively reinforces symptoms
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should be avoided during recovery.
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Medical professionals also recognize that all recovery processes are different,
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but those with post concussion syndrome do not retain structural
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changes in the brain, just cognitive changes.
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Sources also described that students face struggles when returning to
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school with a concussion in some specific cognitive deficits that
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can occur our attention concentration, memory processing speed and efficiency.
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Um, and verbal fluency.
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I explore different methods of testing that can show before
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and after abilities for athletes.
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And some sources explained that student athletes made purposely underperform
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when taking these tests so that if they do get
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concussed, they can appear to be testing normal and further
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regard to concussions and athletics.
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I explored sports safety, um, gear such as helmets and
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other protective gear and medical professionals found that they are
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not as effective as we often believe them to be.
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Sports regulation, like fair play policies and education for coaches
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and athletes have proven to be effective.
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In terms of statistics studies on high school football players
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Found that concussions go frequently unreported in seasons, only 47.3%
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of participants reported concussions sustained during their most recent season.
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Even though concussion rates are so high, some sources suggest
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that they might be even higher in reality.
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In terms of academics, there are return to learn approaches
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in 10 states, but that means that 80% of states
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don't have any of these protocols at all.
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During a return to learn phase, medical professionals recommend a
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complete rest phase, but not for an extensive period of
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time. Rather, they promote a gradual return to school as
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soon as seemed possible.
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Concussed students and schools are supposed to be constantly observed
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and monitored and they have to follow a really gradual,
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slow return to class work.
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Educational staff are supposed to complete concussion training and coaches
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are required to teach athletes to minimize concussion.
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Um, place that can promote concussions.
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Lastly, I explore the mental health components that are involved
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in concussions and found that mental health is greatly influenced
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by concussions.
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For example, 30% of concussion patients um, can experience depression.
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These secondary sources show what research has been done to
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help with the issue of concussions and what further research
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still needs to be done, as well as what additional
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protocols need to be created in order to help concussed
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students in educational settings.
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Specifically changes in requiring and regulating athlete and school staff
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compliance to concussion protocols, Creating protocols and the remaining 80%
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of states and raising general awareness for the effects of
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a concussion on learning and mental health really needs to
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be prioritized.
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The secondary research also influenced me to create my own
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return to learn plan where I could implement all the
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medical suggestions for recovery as well as create a survey
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to better assess how concussion awareness levels are and over
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high specifically.
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So I'll get into talking about these two components of
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my primary research.
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I believe that my return to learn plan that I
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created for primary research addresses the problems that exist with
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the current plans in place.
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Uh, like I said, plans like this do currently exist.
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However, I found that they are difficult to adhere to
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properly and it's also unclear when students should progress to
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the next phase.
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The return to learn plan that I created has six
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outlined phases with clear direction of what protocols to follow.
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The biggest difference between my return to learn plan and
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others that I have seen is that progression through the
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phases is based solely on students symptoms alone rather than
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time base.
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And when I made my plan, I took into account
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all medical and professional suggestions that I found during my
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secondary research.
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And then the other part of my primary research was
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my survey and the survey that I created was intended
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to be taken by school administrators, students, teachers and parents.
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The survey included a variety of questions that are all
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meant to assess the knowledge levels and awareness levels and
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also concerned levels about concussions.
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At end of our high school and 33 people took
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my survey.
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The first section of data is from school administration Over
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all the data in this section shows that teachers and
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other school faculty are aware of the problem with concussions
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at the high school, which was to be expected When
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asked about the number of students that teachers had to
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accommodate two in the classroom for head injuries.
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The number greatly varied.
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Um, and this data is helpful because it shows that
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some teachers are well aware of the academic limitations of
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a head injury while others have never experienced this in
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their classroom.
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And then this graph shows administrators opinions on the level
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of concussion education they receive in many saw as not
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enough, they also left helpful, um, open ended ideas for
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potential accommodations based on what they have seen helpful, which
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gave me good insight into where accommodations need to be
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available to the students.
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The next section of the survey was for students, and
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it describes what they know about concussions.
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Although most reported never having had a concussion themselves, most
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did know someone who had had a concussion if not
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just a regular concussion, of serious concussion.
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Most were pretty aware of what post concussion syndrome is,
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as well as the potential symptoms of head injuries.
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The image here shows what most students believe, um that
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more prevention can be taken in high school sports, and
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they offered suggestions on what further precautions to take.
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The majority also said that either they, themselves or their
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parents or both had been wary of their participation in
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certain sports and activities at the high school due to
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the potential risk of head injury.
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The last section of the survey is intended for parents
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to test awareness and concern levels of concussions for high
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schoolers, the parents who took the survey seemed less aware
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of what post concussion syndrome is than the students.
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They voted similarly to students regarding the amount of concussion
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prevention in sports.
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100% of parents who took the survey said that they
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felt like student athletes live by the severity of the
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symptoms in order to return to athletics.
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Parents seem concerned also about the rates of concussions, but
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they were unsure whether or not concussion rates have spiked
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in recent years, and they did not have strong opinions
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regarding the amount of concussion training for teachers.
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Interestingly, parents were far more likely than the teachers to
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say that they struggled to tell when their child is
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struggling as a result of an invisible head injury.
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Lastly, the image here depicts that parents greatest concerns with
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their child getting a head injury, our physical health, cognitive
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ability and changes in temperament.
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Um, well, mental health and athletic capability ranked lower as
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concerns. The suggestions given by all sections of those who
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took the survey are helpful in guiding what changes need
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to be made both in academics, academics and athletics as
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prevention and treatment at the high school.
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Some of the responses displayed a general understanding of concussions,
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while others displayed a lack of proper knowledge and perhaps
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a lack of concern where there should be more.
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One specific problem that really stood out to me is
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that mental health ranked as such low importance to parents
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when it came to the symptoms that their child faces
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when getting a concussion, which either shows that they're unaware
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that mental health is a concussion symptom or it's just
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not being prioritized the same way that academic capability and
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physical health is being prioritized.
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I took my plan to my guidance counselor for review
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and I really hope that I returned to learn plan
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like mine can be implemented and over high.
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And I also hope that my research will encourage school
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administrators to better educate teachers and coaches and even students,
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as well as just making high school sports safer.
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Thank you for your time and listening to my caps
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presentation, and I hope this was helpful in teaching.
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Um, what more we can be doing to help students
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that are struggling with concussions and related effects at end
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of our high school.
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Thank you.