Pop Warner football is getting proactive in helping its participants recognize the symptoms of a concussion.
According to USA Today, the youth football organization will begin offering concussion education to its 320,000 participants nationwide, which includes roughly 225,000 football players and 100,000 more in cheer and dance.
The program, called CrashCourse, is an interactive online program from software creator TeachAids in collaboration with Stanford University.
Using an interactive film that puts the viewer on the field for a high school football game, the program aims to help young people recognize the signs of concussion in themselves or others.
“This really focuses on a kid’s perspective,” Pop Warner executive director Jon Butler told USA Today. “If you get dinged, tell somebody. If you see one of your teammates or [cheer] squad mates acting funny, tell somebody. … You are not ratting a kid out, is what it comes down to. You are helping the kid and helping the team.”
Stanford football captain Alameen Murphy was one of many Stanford students who helped on the project. “The next generation of players will now be able to know and understand concussions the way we wish we did at their age,” he said in a statement.
