Every Tuesday and Wednesday, for the five hours total for which a school district gets reimbursed by the state, a Southmoreland High School math teacher brings books, coursework and specialized instruction to the Mount Pleasant home of Gaige Pavlocak, 15.
Gaige, despite recent improvements in his symptoms, health and outlook, has been academically exiled to his home for more than six weeks because of the post-concussion effects still lingering from a helmet-to-helmet collision on the third day of high-school football camp.
That was Aug. 18, 101 days ago.
Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette opens up his article today about concussions on the youth. Pennsylvania is a good place to read about concussions and school-aged kids, as it is where the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is, the home of Dr. Micky Collins and the ImPACT program. The northeast in general has been much quicker to adapt and adopt (Washington state not included) changes necessary to the well-being of adolescents across the board.
One such novel idea and program is BrainSTEPS (Strategies Teaching Educators, Parents and Students), a homebound educational system provided by the state, for those suffering from traumatic brain injuries. Although the program was initially set forth for severe (coma-like) injuries to the brain, a majority of assistance is given to those that have been concussed.
We have students who have never lost a second of consciousness who are doing far worse in school than students who were in a coma for a day or two, those considered severely, traumatically brain injured,” Mrs. Eagan Brown said.
A very good article that I encourage everyone to read, especially those involved in teaching our youth. Resistance is not needed in this area however, we see that on a daily basis.
The Concussion Blog 