For my inquiry project I have decided to focus my interest in, How repeated head injuries in youth sports affects brain development over time? This question was chosen for numerous reasons, some connecting to my past and hopefully mu future. For this topic I have decided to focus my interest in 3 sub questions that I can further look into.
The 3 questions are:
- What are the cumulative effects of sub-concussive impacts compared to diagnosed concussions?
- How does age and the development stage of the child affect the vulnerability when considering the brain and the level of impact?
- What is the role of recover time and multi-sport participation in avoiding long term neurological impacts and risks?
The first question matters because it is common for a lot of the public to focus on your typical concussion. The typical concussion is where you are hit in the head, and many think that you lose consciousness; however, this is incorrect. This matters because we will be looking deeply into the affect that it has on youth athletes and how the Brian develops when major impacts occur when the brain is still developing at such a young age. This question will focus on how severe things may happen and how as well. A key area that this question will focus on is how do the lower level impacts accumulate over time and if they are progressive and noticeable as time passes.
The second question is important as it focuses on kids my age as well as children below me. Many kids of all ages are vulnerable when it comes to head injuries, especially in contact sports such as hockey, soccer, basketball, and baseball. I wanted to focus on this question because children’s brains function a lot differently than your typical adult. Seeing how concussions/head injuries may affect an adult may affect a child that’s under the age of 15 in a total different way. This question mainly will focus on the role age plays and if the youth are more subjective to head injuries when compared to an individual of a different age such as 20.
Lastly, the final question is to focus on the role rest and proper healing has when it comes to returning back to physical play. Due to many kids being multi-sport athletes including myself, I wanted to see how vital these healing protocols are especially when many athletes don’t have an off-season due to sports all year round. It is very common at a young age for head injuries to be pushed away and overlooked; however, I wanted to see how vital the damage could be when doing the wrong thing. Overall, this question is to research and focus on how recovery periods impact the youth, as well as does playing multiple non-contact sports help build safer habits or does it lack of physical activity make it worse.
These are 5 sources that will be useful when it comes to researching:
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/concussions.html&ved=2ahUKEwiw5oDapsWXAxXpfTIDHS12B4oQFnoECCcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2YswUmXBopNTSA_QKDrxCf
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/traumatic-brain-injury-tbi&ved=2ahUKEwiU3fTtpsWXAxXJDIAAHZBCH5UQFnoECCYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw01kFv0la-7HGsKFjRLIjR-
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.cdc.gov/traumatic-brain-injury/about/repeated-head-impacts.html&ved=2ahUKEwjg-sD2psWXAxX0dDIDHQYUBZkQFnoECCYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2clMDOTldGbKKBqllSYR65
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK185336/&ved=2ahUKEwjg-sD2psWXAxX0dDIDHQYUBZkQFnoECDgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1PxXotY8QTLFoXLZ8X6Vvm
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6866543/&ved=2ahUKEwjOteL_psWXAxVnA4AAHUnUApUQFnoECCQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3DFPIMKb_1xaCe6vPZAbip
