New Testing Being Administered to Help Evaluate Athletes Who May or May Not Have Suffered Concussions
An Illinois high school is implementing this year new testing that Wisconsin schools have used annually to help evaluate athletes who have suffered traumatic brain injury. The test, which seems more like a game when taken, will help coaches better determine whether the athletes are fully recovered from a concussion and whether or not they are ready to get back on the field or not.
Read More: Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney in Wisconsin
According to an article on Saukvalley.com, blue squares, red circles, and black rectangles were displayed on a computer screen. X’s and O’s, mashed into what looked like a giant tic-tac-toe board, appeared on another as 10 athletes sat in front of a row of computers.
“In Room 9 at West Carroll High School, a total of 21 athletes over the school’s nine sports teams and flag squad spent almost an hour of their Wednesday morning taking a pre- concussion ImPact test – a baseline test administered by the Monroe Clinic out of Monroe, Wisconsin,” the article reads. “This is the first year West Carroll registered for the testing. Athletic director Joe Hansen decided it would be smart after he saw its benefits while coaching football at two schools in Wisconsin that had the tests available yearly.”
Hansen said in the article the testing is important because of all of the concussions that have been happening in recent years.
“We want parents to be more informed and have all the tools available. We want to know that when
Field tests such as eye tracking, memory recall and balance are effective, but an athletic trainer at the high school said this new test is in-depth and allows the trainers to administer it as a baseline and then retest athletes who have suffered a concussion (or potential head injury) in order to compare the answers. The issue is that some athletes may feel ready to get back out there, but the test may find issues that other field tests may not catch.
Most who showed up to the voluntary session hadn’t ever experienced a concussion, but were urged to attend by either a coach or a parent.
According to the article, the test consists of four different sections, and each aim to force the test-taker to use different parts of the brain. Two sections include word association, one of which attempts to confuse by asking to select the word that says ‘Red’, but the red-colored word might read ‘Green.’ Another section asks test takers to remember which direction several lines were pointing, while another measures reaction time. The final section deals with memory, including a quiz about the beginning portion of the test.
“The Monroe Clinic performs these tests for seven high schools in Illinois, as well as Highland Community College,” the article reads. “Some schools use different clinics to perform these tests, while others conduct them with field tests and verbal questioning.”
