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Scituate woman takes concussion tool to young athletes

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 22, 2012|By Emily Sweeney

Anna Norton, 11, takes a test to establish a cognitive baseline, as administrator… (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff )

NORWELL - Jeannine Donato remembers the dreaded phone call she received two years ago, and how she feared the worst: Her youngest son, Nolan, had been hurt during his hockey game. He had been hit from behind, and his head slammed against the boards. He was taken to Children’s Hospital in an ambulance.

When Donato arrived at the hospital, Nolan seemed confused and his head was pounding - he had suffered a concussion. Doctors in the emergency room asked whether Nolan had ever had a “baseline’’ test done before. Unfortunately, he had not.

Baseline testing is an important tool for evaluating concussions, and helps doctors determine when an athlete should return to playing. The computerized exam - described by many as a “preseason physical for the brain’’ - is given regularly to athletes at the collegiate and pro levels, as well as in high school contact sports. But in the world of youth sports, it’s not as common.

After her son’s concussion, Donato made it her mission to make this type of testing more accessible to young athletes, through an initiative she calls “A Head of the Game’’ (www.a-headofthegame.com). Since launching this effort in October 2010, the Scituate mother has single-handedly tested more than 250 youngsters, most of whom are still in grade school.

“That’s my goal,’’ she said, “to get to the younger kids.’’

The mother of four is well suited for the job. She is a registered nurse who has dealt with such injuries while working in the head trauma unit of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Her children play sports, and her husband, Ted, is a 13-year National Hockey League veteran who played for the Boston Bruins and now coaches the men’s hockey team at Harvard University.

Until her son got hurt, Donato had never heard of Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing - better known as the ImPACT test. Now she spends much of her time administering this test to 11- and 12-year-olds.

The ImPACT test is part video game, part puzzle, part brain teaser. It can be done almost anywhere. All Donato needs is a quiet room where she can set up a laptop computer.

The test consists of six modules: word memory, design memory, X’s and O’s, symbol matching, color match, and three-letter memory. These exercises measure the athlete’s cognitive functions.

After the athlete finishes the test, which takes about 20 minutes, the results are scored and ranked by percentile. This provides a snapshot of the athlete’s cognitive abilities - such as recall, attention span, reaction time, and pattern recognition - and shows how quickly his or her healthy brain processes information.