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I got a concussion yesterday at soccer.

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How soon should I go back to school?

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We used to think that children should wait
until they were having no symptoms

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to go back to doing things like school
and other activities.

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To better answer
this question, we designed a study across

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nine centers in Canada.  We recruited kids
between ages 5 to 18 years

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and we followed them
within two days of their injury,

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all the way up to a couple of months
after their injury.

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In this study, we found that children
who went back to school within one

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or two days following their concussion
did better than the kids

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who had waited longer
until their symptoms had resolved.

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It's important to get kids back doing
the things they want, love, and need to do.

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And that means school.

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Now, what's important when we say back
to school, it doesn't mean kids have to

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do all the tests, exams and homeworks
that they normally would be doing.

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But getting back to one or two hours a day
for the first day or two after the injury,

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just to get back to seeing your friends,
meeting your classmates

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and seeing your teachers are going to help
you get back to normal life.

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Going back in a stepwise fashion
with support from schools

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and your health care providers
can help kids prevent those long symptoms

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that sometimes happen with concussion

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and may also help prevent
some of the mental health problems

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that kids can have by missing out
for a long period of time.