What PE Teachers Should Know About Concussion
Concussion is a form of brain injury that can result from impact to the head or the body. Due to advances in brain research and studies on the prevalence of
concussion, there have been steady increases in both media coverage and the number of public
health campaigns related to this issue.
While much of this recent attention
has focused on youth sport, concussion can occur in any type of physical activity program,
including physical education, extracurricular activity programs,
recess, intramural sport, interscholastic sport, and community-based
sport and physical activity programs.
Because K-12 physical education teachers work with young people in one
or more of these settings — and are responsible for students' health and safety on a daily basis — it's important for them to know enough about concussions to prevent them whenever possible, recognize common signs and symptoms, comply with local policy requirements, and contribute to concussion-management plans.