Traumatic Brain Injury

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Traumatic Brain Injury

• Chapter 13

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Definition

• "an acquired injury to the brain caused by
  external physical force that adversely affects a
  child's educational performance and results in
  total or partial functional disability,
  psychosocial impairment, or both."

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Closed Head Injury

• brain being whipped back and forth rapidly
  causing it to rub against and bounce off the
  rough jagged interior of the skull.
• places enormous stress on the brain stem and
  affects person physically emotionally and
  cognitively
• Post-concussional syndrome mild (TBI) (whiplash
  with not heading of the head)

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Open Head Injury

• result from an insult to a specific area or focal
  point of the brain.
• Gunshot wound or a blow to the head
• Generally affects only those functions controlled
  by the injured part of the brain

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Symptoms of Mild Head Injury

• Becomes restless and fussy
• Difficulty in or doesnt paying attention
• Forgetful
• Gets mixed up about time and places
• Takes longer to get things done
• Doesnt act the same
• Doesnt see or hear well
• Develops problems with words or sentences

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• Acts without thinking
• Loses his or her temper a lot
• Tires easily or needs extra sleep
• Drops things or trips a lot
• Develops problem with words or sentences
• Has a harder time learning

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Characteristics

• Affects many areas
• Can share characteristics with
• Learning disabilities
• Emotional/emotional disorders
• Mental retardation
• Physical disabilities
• Speech and language impairments
• Vary depending on
• Site and extent of injury
• Length of time in coma
• Maturational stage _at_ time of injury

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Physical Changes

• Range from non-existence to severe
• 20 of TBI have seizures, usually decreases over
  time
• can cause spasticity, paralysis, growth-related
  problems, sleep disorders, photosensitivity
• coordination problems, physical weakness and
  fatigue

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• usually improves with rehabilitation and
  occupational therapy
• experience headaches (in 1/3 of TBI students)
• visual or hearing impairments perceptional
  impairments
• adverse impairments
• adverse changes in sense of taste, touch, smell

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Cognitive Changes

• Unable to concentrate on their work
• Unable to remember facts or events learned
  recently or long ago.
•  

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Linguistic Changes

• Aphasia (inability to use language appropriately)
• May revert to communication in a more immature
  fashion, using phrases and gestures that would
  have been expected from a younger person

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• Social, behavioral and personality changes
• Social interferes with family interactions and
  friendships
• Interferences in community functioning
• Behavioral
• Inability to initiate tasks
• Disinhibition (poor self-monitoring skills)
• Personality
• Irritability
• Temper outburst

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Causes

• Accidents are a major cause
• Motor vehicle, bicycle, or pedestrian vehicle.
• Falls are second
• most frequent falls from beds, chairs, tables,
  and shopping carts

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• Violence related incidents are the 3rd most
  common
• Almost equally divided b/t firearms and
  non-firearms assaults
• Child abuse majority are infant head injuries
• Sports and recreational injuries are 4th
• diving, contact spots, being hit by ball
• 90 are mild and go unreported

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Prevalence

• TBI is the leading cause of death and disability
  among children and young adults
• Males are more than twice as likely as females to
  experience TBI
• In 1999-2000 school year 13,874 students received
  services under the IDEA category of TBI
•  

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Determining the Presence

• Evaluations by medical and rehabilitation
  personnel
• Test include CAT scan, MRI, and PET
• Formal and informal measures
• i.e. clinician and family observations
• standardized IQ tests for comparison
• pre vs. post injury
•  

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• neuropsychological assessment of cognition
  processing skills
• ability to attend
• memory
• language
• abstract reasoning
• motor skills
• problem-solving
• ongoing evaluation check for neurological gains

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Assuring Progress General Curriculum

• Cognitive retraining
• Structured teaching with accommodations and
  modifications .
• Traditional memory aids do not always work with
  TBI students.
• Memory enhancers like mnemonics