Concussion policy being drafted by Ontario school boards

Ontario school boards are working on policies that would standardize the way each of their schools deal with student concussions and the best, safest way to get students back to class.

Ontario's Ministry of Education said each school board in Ontario must have a concussion plan put in place by the end of January.

"Research demonstrates that a concussion can have a significant impact on a student – cognitively, physically, emotionally, and socially. The implementation of a policy on concussion in each school board is therefore another important step in creating healthier schools in Ontario," policy program memorandum 158 reads, in part.

The change applies to all publicly funded elementary and secondary schools, including extended-day programs operated by school boards for full-day kindergarten.

Sharon Seslija, a teacher consultant with the Greater Essex County District School Board, said the ministry mandated several things be part of the policy such as a concussion awareness, identification, prevention, management and training.

She said the first task is identifying who needs training in any of these areas.

"We make the assumption that concussions happen on the sports field. Concussions can happen anywhere. A kid could fall down in the playground when playing during recess; a kid could slip on the floor. So everybody in the education community needs to have some awareness and education and training," Seslija said.

Communication between parents, teachers essential

The Windsor-Essex school board will also provide information for parents on dealing with concussions and the importance of communicating with school staff if their child has been diagnosed with one.

"So if kids happen to sustain a diagnosed concussion [outside school], it's really important that the schools know about that because then we can look at how the student is going to return to learn and how the student is going to return to play," Seslija said.

There are six stages that kids have to progress through when they're returning to learn and play after suffering form a concussion, Seslija said. And recovery varies from child to child..  

She said the policy in Windsor-Essex will help keep students stay safe, but will also help them learn properly, since a concussion can have a large impact on how they approach academic work.

"When a child first sustains a concussion, often times they need complete cognitive rest, which means no TV, no video games, no computer, no reading. It's complete rest," Seslija said.

She said once they symptoms subside teachers and parents can work on a plan to get the student back to class, which can vary with each child.

"Maybe coming back to school for only half a day, or maybe a period a day, depending on how severe the symptoms were," she said.

Kids more likely to get concussions

Chris Abeare, a clinical neuropsychologist  who runs the University of Windsor's concussion clinic, said kids are more susceptible to getting a concussion because they're still growing — their heads are disproportionately larger than their bodies and their neck isn't strong enough to support it.

"These two factors combined make it so that when they have a concussion it's often more severe than it would be for a young adult or adult," said Abeare.

He also said they're more likely to have long term cognitive problems.

Abeare said current research suggests concussions are happening more often, with the cause being partially attributed to kids getting into contact sports, such as hockey and football, at an earlier age and being more competitive.

New athletes, especially women, concussion prone

The increase could also be attributed to athletes in general getting bigger, stronger, at faster rate, he said.

"Evolution can't keep up with the increased pace of our athletics. Our brains are only still able to take a certain amount of force and we're giving it more and more force it seems," he said.

One of the sports that has the highest rates of concussions is women's' hockey, he points out. Women tend to be a little more susceptible to concussions than men, and they tend to have worse symptoms.

"It could be related to the fact that they're necks aren't as strong as men's are in relation to their body size. It also could be due to chemical differences in the brain," said Abeare, pointing that more research has to be done on the reasons, and for now these factors are speculative.