Traumatic Brain Injury

According to The Texas Education Agency (2019) a Traumatic Brain Injury means "an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Traumatic brain injury 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. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma."

Common traits/characteristics 

• Dizziness

• Confusion 

• Blurred vision

• Headache

• Sensitivity to lights or sounds

• Fatigue

Educational challenges:

Students may experience emotional distress as a result from difficulty in thinking processes. This may be exhibited in challenges in processing complex or abstract information. So this may impact their organizational patterns and their ability to learn new information. 

Tips/ recommendations for teachers:

• Allow the students to have frequent breaks when necessary

• Allow the student to have a video or audio recording of the lesson to listen/view at a later date

• Allow the student to take breaks when necessary 

• The teacher should also look for opportunities to reduce the amount of work in favor of encouraging quality work.