Authors: Roberta DePompei, Ann Glang
Summary: Each year approximately 700,000 US children ages 0–19 years sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) requiring hospitalization or emergency treatment (Faul, Xu, Wald, & Coronado, 2010). The numbers across the world, including those with acquired brain injury (ABI), continue to grow (Hyder, Wunderlich, Puvanachandra, Gururaj, & Kobusingye, 2007; International Paediatric Brain Injury Society, 2016). The effects of pediatric TBI and ABI are pervasive, affecting every aspect of functioning—cognitive, behavioral, and social (Barlow et al., 2010; Boake et al., 2005; Chapman et al., 2010; Ganesalingam et al., 2011; Yeates, 2010; Zaloshnja, Miller, Langlois, & Selassie, 2008). Even mild injuries to the developing brain can result in persistent neural alterations and significantly affect social and educational functioning (Sesma, Slomine, Ding, McCarthy, & the Children’s Health After Trauma Study Group, 2008).
Source: NeuroRehabilitation, 2018; 42 (3): 255