School
Return to School
Last Updated:
After a child with a traumatic or acquired brain injury has been discharged from the hospital and rehabilitation, the next step is helping that child re-enter school. This can be a daunting task for parents as there is a wide range of special education procedures and services that await the family. The process is especially difficult if the school has not serviced a child with a brain injury before and administrators, teachers and supporting staff do not know what to expect.
The child with a brain injury presents the school with many challenges. Brain injury is very different than Attention Deficit Disorder or a Specific Learning Disability, which are more commonly seen and treated in the school. The child with a brain injury may have physical limitations that may subside with time. The child may have retained pockets of previously learned information, especially achievement-related, while learning patterns are drastically changed following brain injury. Children with brain injury have difficulty learning new information due to decreased attention, increased disorganization, possible language deficits, and overall lack of strategies. The challenge to the school is to increase the child’s access to novel and structured learning avenues so he/she can reach his/her maximum potential. The techniques that are successful with children with developmental disorders may have to be “tweaked” and modified to accommodate the brain injury.
What can be distressing to parents and the child, is that as time passes and physical disabilities become less evident, the school may not take into consideration that a brain injury can have subtle effects on a child even in the absence of physical findings. Children with brain injuries have attention issues, possible lack of behavioral control, and uneven learning performance due to damage that may have started years before because of a brain injury. A child with a brain injury can appear younger than others, act on impulse, and may have ongoing problems with peer relations. A child may fatigue easily and need more rest than the other students. As children with brain injury progress through school and demands increase, they may need more structure and support to deal with organization, self-monitoring, and prioritizing.
The challenges that children with brain injury face are compounded by their injury long after the last scar is healed. It is important that the parents continue to advocate for the child and educate the schools regarding the long term effects of brain injury, and to provide new educators who may be unaware that there was a brain injury, with updated educational and remedial guidance for how to help the child continue to achieve and be successful.
Kathleen O’Toole, Ph.D. is a pediatric neuropsychologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where she specializes in brain injury, neurological and developmental disorders. Before receiving training in neuropsychology, Dr. O’Toole was a learning disabilities specialist, receiving a M.M.Sc. from Emory University School of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. from Georgia State University in School Psychology with a specialization in Developmental Neuropsychology. She completed her predoctoral internship at Emory University School of Medicine and her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University.
Resources
May Institute, Rehabilitation
Childhood Trauma and the Council for Exceptional Children
Tufts - New England Medical Center
National Pediatric Trauma Registry