Dr. Robert C. Cantu, a neurosurgeon who is an expert on sports-related concussions, says every parent of a child who plays a contact sport should have the Graded Symptom Checklist.
The National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s checklist should be used at the time of a head injury and at least four times afterward: at two to three hours, 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours after the injury, or till all symptoms have cleared.
The checklist can help determine whether a concussion has occurred, its severity and whether a player is fit to return to the game.
But the checklist is also important to use later, on the recommended schedule, because symptoms of a concussion are sometimes delayed. A player who sustained a direct or indirect blow to the brain may feel all right initially, then develop symptoms later.
Athletic trainers, doctors or other medical personnel can use the checklist to evaluate a player both at rest and during physical exertion.
A return of symptoms when a brain-injured athlete is physically or cognitively stressed is a clear sign that the brain has not healed.
“Any one of these symptoms occurring in the aftermath of a head trauma would disqualify an athlete from participating in the sport,” emphasized Cantu, co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine. “No athlete should be engaged in physical exertion if any symptom is present.”
Jane E. Brody
Checklist. statements/position/ concussion.pdf
