Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
AMERICAN FORK — Intermountain Healthcare and the Alpine School District are teaming up to launch a Return-to-Learn program, meant to help students suffering from concussions succeed when they return to the classroom.
The program gives teachers the tools they need to monitor a student's healing process.
Return-to-Learn helps kids with concussions
Sports medicine physician Dr. Darren Campbell said a concussion causes a temporary learning disability in young people.
"This just helps with the tools to really get them back into life, which is school for them," he told KSL NewsRadio's Heather Kelly.
Student-athletes must follow a strict set of guidelines before they are allowed to resume playing. That wasn't the case in the classroom, until now.
"We see countless students in our concussion clinic that were high performers in the classroom," Campbell said. "They go to class, they struggle, they are not able to do some of the assignments. And what happens is their grades fall, their learning abilities fall."
Students with concussions may need reduced coursework
Campbell said students may need to study at home, then have a reduced amount of schoolwork in the classroom before they can return to full academic status.
He said the purpose of the program is to track a student's healing progress, and adjust their school work if necessary, so as to not delay the healing process.
"Maybe they can't look at a screen very well," Campbell said. "So they can listen to the lectures as they do better, they can return to the classroom. But with other modifications: where they sit and how they receive the information."
