Imagine that it's a beautiful Fall morning at Sunshine Elementary School. Last Friday, the Blazing Rays football team defeated their rival school to claim the Piwi League Championship title. Unfortunately, you hear that one of the players on the team, Matthew, suffered a concussion after he was tackled to the ground by one of his opponents. Matthew has rested at home over the weekend and he's now returning to school after seeing his physician. You are a teacher at Sunshine Elementary, you wonder to yourself, what is a concussion anyway? How do I recognize if Matthew is having symptoms of a concussion and how can I as a school professional help Matthew to be successful throughout his recovery period? Well, in this lesson I hope to help you answer these questions. Numerous recent studies have examined the potential negative impacts of concussions. They've revealed that concussions can have enormously damaging effects to not only a child's physical health but also to his or her mental, emotional and educational well-being. Whether you are a teacher, nurse, physician, coach, athletic trainer or other school professional, it's crucial to educate yourself on how to identify and manage symptoms of a concussion. In doing so, you have the power to create positive change for the estimated millions of children who suffer from concussions yearly throughout the world. So, what happened in Matthew's brain when he sustained a concussion on the football field? A concussion occurs when there is either a direct force to the head or when there is a physical impact on the body that leads to an indirect force to the head, usually from the brain moving rapidly back and forth. A concussion is a functional injury to the brain. What I mean by functional injury, is that when a concussion occurs, the brain is unable to work properly due to chemical changes as a result of stretching and damaging of brain cells during the injury. Years ago, you may have been told after hitting your head that it's only a brain bruise or you got your bell rung, but you'll be fine. While these used to be very common beliefs, they're misleading and quite frankly not true. First of all, when we call something a bruise, it implies that bleeding has occurred; most commonly we see this in blood vessels beneath the skin that are damaged causing visible discoloration of the skin. In a concussion, blood vessels within the brain do not bleed and in fact, a brain that has suffered a concussion usually has a completely normal appearance even when we look at it through advanced imaging studies. Secondly, scientists now recognize the potential long-term consequences that concussions can have on the brain especially when children experience repeat or multiple head injuries. In rare cases, children can even develop permanent changes to their brain's function as a result of severe or recurrent concussions. The good news is that most children recover completely but that doesn't mean that concussions are no big deal. All concussions should be taken seriously no matter the cause. As a school professional, you have the potential to shift an entire community's attitude toward concussions, simply by changing the way you talk about them with children, families and other professionals. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to predict how bad the effects of a concussion will be simply based upon a certain type of injury. Furthermore, two children with the same injury may present with completely different symptoms. We do know that concussions occur more frequently during activities where children tend to run into one another. Examples of these types of activities include: physical education classes, playground time or school-based contact sports. That being said, concussions can happen anytime a student's head comes into contact with a hard object such as a floor, desk, or another student's head or body. The better we are able to recognize and respond to concussions, the more effectively we can prevent further injury and help children to recover. In the next video, we will learn about the symptoms of a concussion so that we can recognize and intervene more effectively.