Concussions in children are alarmingly frequent, affecting over a million children in the U.S. each year. An estimated 50% of all concussions are undetected, unreported, and untreated. As the founder and director of a concussion clinic in New York, I see my fair share of concerned parents who want to do everything they can to help their kids heal from concussion.
It’s a good instinct: Early and active intervention with targeted therapies is critical. From years of caring for children and adolescents with concussion, my team and I wondered if the parents most involved in their children’s recovery—some might call them “helicopter parents”—could be a key part of navigating a serious medical problem which, left untreated, may have devastating consequences. Our society has turned against helicopter parents, viewing them as unnecessarily controlling.
But they are uniquely valuable as a temporary framework for healing. The treatment regimen for concussion involves drastic lifestyle changes surrounding their daily screen-time exposure, shifting circadian rhythms, intellectual stimulation, and the cognitive demands of school or work. Everything has to be turned down or dialed back, sometimes for weeks at a time.
The brain heals gradually, and each lifestyle change removes a source of strain it would otherwise have to contend with while heeding a vigilant dietary and sleep schedule. I see often in my clinic that the children with very involved parents are the ones most likely to recover swiftly and without complications. After their child gets a concussion, these are the parents who diligently and methodically plan waking hours, sleeping hours, meal times, recreation, and exercise, and gradually adjust screen time.
These strict parental accommodations are fundamental to recovery. Although the degree of supervision may be controversial to developmentally favored ideas of nurturing independence in adolescence, a brief “helicopter” approach in the context of youth brain injury can be remarkably effective. Parents of young children or young adults who are recovering from concussion must be involved from the start and commit to executing all aspects of the recovery plan while modeling positive coping styles.
These interventions can also be effective for young adults in their 20s who had already adjusted to and embraced an independent life. One typical reaction of a parent to their twenty-something offspring could reasonably be that their child has to navigate their treatment and recovery on their own. Yet irrespective of their age or how long they had or had not lived at home, my team and I found, time and again, that it’s extremely beneficial to have a parent swoop in, micromanage a patient’s schedule, and deliberately revert to the past concern and meticulous care that they took on when their child was very young.
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