Exceptional Children and Disability Information

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

The topics listed on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are individual websites that can be accessed only by members of The National Association of Parents with Children in Special Education (NAPCSE).  If you are not a member of NAPCSE, and would like to join, click here to register. Members of NAPCSE, please log in above (member login and password) to activate these, and all other websites, in our database. 

Traumatic Brain Injury Topic Categories

Introduction

Accommodations/Modifications

Adults with TBI

Advocacy Information

Assessment

Assistive Technology

Audio/Video Tapes

Books and Publications

Causes

Characteristics 

Classifications or Types of

Classroom Management

Diagnosis

Definition

Frequently Asked Questions

History of the Field

Medical Issues/Medications

Organizations

Overview and General Information

Parent Information

Prevalence

 Transition Services



Introduction to NAPCE's Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Page

 

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) means an acquired injury to the brain due to the effects of an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.

Traumatic brain injury is sudden physical damage to the brain. The damage may be due to the effects of the head forcefully hitting an object such as the dashboard of a car (closed head injury) or by something passing through the skull and piercing the brain, as in a gunshot wound (penetrating head injury). The major causes of head trauma are motor vehicle accidents. Other causes include falls, sports injuries, violent crimes, and child abuse.

The physical, behavioral, or mental changes that may result from head trauma depend on the areas of the brain that are injured. Most injuries cause focal brain damage, damage confined to a small area in the brain. The focal damage is most often at the point where the head hits an object or where an object, such as a bullet, enters the brain. In addition to focal damage, closed head injuries frequently cause diffuse brain injuries or damage to several other areas of the brain. The diffuse damage occurs when the impact of the injury causes the brain to move back and forth against the inside of the bony skull. The frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, the major speech and language areas, often receive the most damage in this way because they sit in pockets of the skull that allow more room for the brain to shift and sustain injury. Because these major speech and language areas often receive damage, communication difficulties frequently occur following closed head injuries. Other problems may include voice, swallowing, walking, balance, and coordination difficulties, as well as changes in the ability to smell and in memory and cognitive (or thinking) skills.

Approximately 200,000 Americans die each year from their injuries. An additional half million or more are hospitalized. About 10 percent of the surviving individuals have mild to moderate problems that threaten their ability to live independently. Another 200,000 have serious problems that may require institutionalization or some other form of close supervision.

The term TBI is not used for a person who is born with a brain injury. It also is not used for brain injuries that happen during birth. The term TBI is used for head injuries that can cause changes in one or more areas, such as thinking and reasoning, understanding words, remembering things, paying attention, solving problems, thinking abstractly, talking, behaving, walking and other physical activities, seeing and/or hearing, and learning.

 



Accommodations/Modifications

  • excellent list
  • related to residential life
  • on college campus
  • PDF file -classroom accommodations
  • interesting list

 

Adults with TBI

  • for spouses-1
  • for spouses-2
  • sexuality and brain injury
  • survivor’s view

 

Advocacy Information

  • list of organizations
  • advocacy defined

 

Assessment

  • assessment scales
  • assessment sites

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Assistive Technology

  • good site for technology solutions
  • good overview of sites
  • brief explanation
  • list of devices and distributors
  • sites

 

Audio/Video

  • selected topics

 

Books and Publications

  • extensive list of articles
  • selected books
  • bibliographies up to 1998-while dated may contain interesting topics for further research
  • selected books
  • extensive list on TBI resources
  • articles

 

Causes

  • overview of causes
  • causes and incidence

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Characteristics

  • symptoms

 

Classifications or Types of

  • good list
  • labeling brain injury

 

Classroom Management

  • educator’s guide to the brain
  • memory process
  • case study
  • attention skills
  • functional IEP’s
  • understanding inclusion
  • recovery strategy-back to school
  • communicating needs to instructors and teachers
  • victim’s perspective of school
  • a model of TBI peer support
  • adolescents with TBI
  • helpful glossary of terms associated with TBI
  • classroom support

 

Definition

  • brain injury glossary
  • excellent overview of brain injury-legal perspective
  • what is TBI

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Diagnosis

  • diagnosis and management
  • case study
  • various cases-legal perspective

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • good selection of questions
  • head injury

 

History of the Field

  • different individuals who made contributions to the field

 

Medical Issues/Medications

  • pharmacology guide
  • excellent coverage
  • rehabilitation
  • hypothermia treatment
  • treatment protocol and mild TBI
  • National Institutes of Health

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Organizations

  • Brain Injury Association of America
  • good list of TBI resources
  • national and worldwide associations
  • TBI resource directory-very extensive
  • Coma Recovery Association
  • International Brain Injury Association
  • Brain Injury Society

 

Overview and General Information

  • excellent overview
  • children and adolescents wit TBI
  • list of some national and state associations
  • government agencies
  • The Perspective Network
  • good overview
  • interesting overview
  • general overview
  • legal overview

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Parent Information

  • roles of the family
  • guidelines for parents
  • about siblings and peers
  • self esteem, empowerment and social action
  • disability benefits
  • stress management
  • sports and recreation resources

 

Prevalence

  • overview
  • charts and statistics
  • facts and stats

 

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