Traumatic Brain Injuries
How it Affects Children's Language
What is Traumatic Brain Injury?
- More common in younger children than adults
- Half a million children go to hospital each year for TBI
- Caused by blow to the head/head getting jolted
- More prevalent in males
- Symptoms include dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, visual disturbance, vomiting, difficulty with memory, and more
(Mason, 2013) i.e. source is for pie chart alsoThe Role of a Speech-Language Pathologist
- The SLP is trained to target most important and widely-used language concepts
- SLP fully understands which skills overlap
- they are trained to improve language skills; early intervention is best
(Haarbauer-Krupa, 2012)
Components of Language and Communication Affected
Areas affected weigh in on academic success.
Many language domains are affected such as:
- Verbal responses (Rousseaux, Verigneaux, & Kozlowksi, 2010)
- Pragmatics
- Syntactic structure (Rousseaux, VĂ©rigneaux, & Kozlowski, 2010)
- memory problems with language (Peach, 2013)
- pausing longer between sentences (Peach, 2013)
- reading comprehension and expressive language (Hanten et al., 2009)
Severity: What it Means
Severity correlates with how bad the symptoms are, also relating to the impact during incident.
Mild TBI does not mean symptoms are minor.
TBI at any severity can severely impact a child's language and cognition.
(Mason, 2013)
Age differences and TBI
- Along with recovery may be heightened language problems in comparison to older children who developed TBI
- Steady learning of language at young age is important
(Hanten et al., 2009)
References
Haarbauer-Krupa, J. (2012). Schools as TBI service providers. ASHA Leader, 17(8), 10-13.
Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/Publications/leader/2012/120703/Schools-asTBI-
Service-Providers.htmHanten, G., Xiaoqi, L., Newsome, M. R., Swank, P., Chapman, S. B., Dennis, M., & ... Levin, H. S. (2009). Oral reading and expressive language after childhood traumatic braininjury. Topics In Language Disorders, 29(3), 236-248. doi: 10.1097/TLD.0b013e3181b531f0
Mason, C. N. (2013). Mild traumatic brain injury in children. Pediatric Nursing, 39(6),
267-282. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/820965
Peach, R. (2013). The cognitive basis for sentence planning difficulties in discourse after
traumatic brain injury. American Journal Of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(2), 285-297. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360
Rousseaux, M., VĂ©rigneaux, C., & Kozlowski, O. (2010). An analysis of communication in conversation after severe traumatic brain injury. European Journal Of Neurology, 17(7), 922-929. doi:10.1111/j.1468-1331.2009.02945.x