Concussion Safety for Kids

"Start a conversation with your child about playing safe and smart!

We know keeping your children safe is a top priority. However, sometimes it can be hard to know how to talk to your child about concussion or other serious brain injury.

Whether you are a coach, school professional, healthcare provider, teacher, or parent, it’s important to have the right tools to prevent concussions and traumatic brain injury on and off the field.

CDC developed a mobile game app, called “HEADS UP Rocket Blades,” to help teach concussion safety in a kid-friendly way to children ages 6 to 8. This innovative app can help you start a conversation with your child about concussion safety. Through a futuristic world of galactic racing adventures, children can learn the benefits of playing it safe and smart!

The app can help you teach children:

• Hitting your head can cause a brain injury called a concussion,
• To tell a coach, parent, or another adult if they hit their head,
• The importance of seeing a doctor if your brain is hurt, and resting before returning to play, and that
• Helmets alone cannot prevent concussions...."

Concussion

Concussion Safety

"Concussion Safety Starts with You

For more than a decade, CDC's Injury Center has helped advance the public health response to concussion. Through our HEADS UP campaign, we put concussion educational materials into the hands of coaches, parents, athletes, and school and health care professionals nationwide.

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury—or TBI—caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can make the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, creating chemical changes in the brain and sometimes stretching and damaging the brain cells. Most children and teens who have a concussion feel better within a couple of weeks. However, for some, symptoms may last for months or longer and can lead to short- and long-term problems affecting how they think, act, learn, and feel..."
Concussion