Pediatric GCS Calculator

The original Glasgow Coma Scale, published by Teasdale and Jennett in 1974, scores consciousness across three components -- Eye opening (1-4), Verbal response (1-5), and Motor response (1-6) -- and sums them into a Total GCS from 3 (deepest coma) to 15 (fully alert). The adult Verbal scale assumes the patient can speak in words, which doesn't work for infants and pre-verbal toddlers, so a modified pediatric version replaces the Verbal criteria with age-appropriate behaviors: from no response at the bottom, through moaning to pain, crying to pain, irritable but consolable crying, up to cooing, babbling, or age-appropriate words at the top -- described in the pediatric literature (Reilly et al., 1988, and subsequent adaptations). The Eye and Motor components keep the same numeric scale used in adults.

This calculator sums the three components into a Total GCS and classifies severity using the standard cutoffs: 13-15 is mild, 9-12 is moderate, and 8 or below is severe -- the same thresholds used for adult traumatic brain injury, with a GCS of 8 or below in particular flagging the patient as likely unable to protect their own airway and needing consideration for intubation. The calculator also raises the flagged intubation-risk threshold for younger children at a borderline GCS, since infants and young children compensate for neurological injury differently than older children and adults. A single point score is only a snapshot -- trending GCS over time and correlating it with the full clinical picture matters more than any one reading in isolation.