Name:
RECALL DIAGRAM
Name of Article: 87 of 91 Tested Ex-NFL Players Had Brain Disease Linked to Head Trauma
Topic: Should You Let Your Kids Play Football?
5 Significant Details
Opinion with the topic sentence
According to Dr. Omalu — whose study and struggle with the N.F.L. is the subject of Concussion, Will Smith’s film — the human brain is completely formed at about 18 to 25 years of age. “We should at least wait for our children to grow up, provide knowledge and education on the danger of gambling, and let them make their own choices,” he wrote. “No adult, parent, or coach, should be allowed to make this life-changing decision for a child.”
Reason and Examples stated to support
Athletes who started playing soccer before 12 had more behavioral and cognitive issues later in life than those who started playing after the age of 12 and found a new study released on Tuesday. The results of a long-term study by researchers at Boston University are likely to contribute to the controversy on when, or even whether, children should be able to start playing soccer. The findings of the Boston University research review, published in the journal Nature’s Translational Psychiatry, were based on a survey of 214 former players with an average age of 51. Of those, 43 played in high school, 103 played in college, and the remaining 68 played in the N.F.L. “The brain is going through this amazing period of growth between the ages of 10 and 12, and if you believe that brain development has repetitive head effects, it may trigger issues later in life,” said Robert Stern, one of the writers of the report, of the results. The research showed that retirees who started to play before 12 had reduced mental flexibility compared to those who started to play. The research is consistent with earlier studies by Stern and others that explicitly looked at N.F.L. pensioners. This study showed that retirees who started playing before 12 years of age had reduced mental capacity relative to those who started playing soccer at 12 years of age or older.
2nd reason followed by examples stated to support
As we know, sports have many advantages, including physical, mental, psychological, emotional, social, creating strength and balance in a happier life. It will make you powerful from the outside and the inside and help you control your emotions (aggression, anxiety, etc.). Football is such a lovely game that you can always say yes to play. Physically, it keeps you healthy as you do a lot of tackles, steering, kicking, running, sprinting, etc … so that your entire body is properly exercised and strengthens your cardiovascular system and helps you keep in good shape and soccer is a team activity that will develop your child’s communication and leadership skills.
Opinion restated with enthusiasm.
An increasing number of scientists argue that since the human brain develops rapidly at a young age, particularly between 10 and 12 years of age, children should not play soccer until they are mature enough.
5.
The truth is, any physical activity carries the risk of injury. Due to the numbers, there is a great deal of emphasis on football. A 2008 study found that high school football players were more likely than other athletes to suffer from strains, sprains, and fractures. Players also suffer the most concussions in young sports. The more people play soccer, the greater the risks. “Some people think, ‘Yeah, they’re just playing like a baby,’ but if you start at eight and play until you’re 18, that’s ten years of repetitive head-impact,” says Dr. Stamm.
Parents should also be conscious of the symptoms of concussion. These include dizziness, irregular mood swings, headaches, confusion, and light sensitivity. “One important thing is that you don’t have to lose consciousness,” says Dr. Stamm. The balance between the enduring importance of early brain development and its remarkable continuous plasticity lies at the heart of the current debate about the impact of early experience on the brain.
Relates to Text
The brain is the ultimate adaptation organ. It takes knowledge and orchestrates complex behavioral repertoires that allow human beings to behave in sometimes wonderful, sometimes terrible ways. Most of what people think of as “self”—what we think, what we recall, what we can do, how we feel — is learned by the brain from the experience that occurs after birth. This information is obtained during crucial or vulnerable stages of growth when the brain tends to be uniquely equipped to absorb certain forms of information. In contrast, other information may be acquired across a wide variety of developments that can continue to adulthood. This continuum of possibilities is well captured by the coinciding proof of both the brain’s extraordinarily rapid development that characterizes the early childhood era and the brain’s lifelong potential for growth and improvement.
