A clinician's guide to concussion management

Sports participation in the United States involves athletes of all ages. One sports-related injury is a concussion, a force-induced head trauma characterized by cognitive and physical symptoms that interfere with cognitive functioning. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) lack the resources to assess and treat concussed athletes with cognitive-linguistic deficits. My goal is to provide SLPs with a handbook incorporating the latest research to evaluate and treat concussed athletes. During an evaluation, SLPs are part of an interdisciplinary team while treatment focuses on memory, attention, self-monitoring, and word retrieval. Also, this manual will include information on 2014's Concussion in Sports Group (CISG) consensus statement, return to play guidelines and concussion education.