Active Injury Management (AIM) After Pediatric Concussion

The REST group will be recommended to return to school and light physical and cognitive activity as soon as tolerated- but no sooner than 48 hrs post-injury per current consensus recommendations. Notifications from the Fitbit app will be turned off, and step goal will be set at 500, to minimize positive feedback and reminders from achievement of activity goals

ACTIVITY group will be encouraged to engage in light to moderate physical activity with the goal of reaching 10,000 steps a day for one or more days during the first week. Subjects will be encouraged to engage in low-risk activities (e.g. walking). Subjects will be instructed to avoid activities that may increase risk of re-injury (e.g. bike riding, climbing, trampoline, sports). Fitbit notifications will be turned on and step goals will be set at 10,000. The simple goal of reaching 10,000 steps is clear to patients regardless of health literacy level, and real-time feedback provides continuous motivation.

mHEALTH group will be instructed to download the SuperBetter© app. In addition to the pre-programmed general resilience goals, research assistants will help the subjects to set personal mental, social, and emotional rehabilitation goals and milestones for acute recovery from mTBI (e.g. return to school for ½ the day, have an improvement in symptoms). These goals/milestones will give the patient an opportunity to celebrate the achievement of improvement from mTBI with the goal of generating a positive contextual frame for recovery.