A prospective analysis of the recovery of attention following paediatric traumatic brain injury

Deposited with permission of the author. © 2000 Dr. Cathy (Agata) CatroppaLittle is known about the recovery of information processing and functional skills following traumatic brain injury during childhood, or of their pattern of recovery, their interaction with ongoing development, and possible predictors of outcome. The present study examined intellectual, information processing (attention, memory and learning) and functional skills (educational and adaptive skills) in a group of children who had sustained a mild (n=27), moderate (n=33) or severe (n= 16) traumatic brain injury (TBI) between the ages of 8-12 years. Children were recruited between June 1994 and December 1997 from the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. The TBI children were then assessed during the acute (0-3 months), 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury. Pre-injury data showed that the three TBI groups were performing similarly prior to their injuries, suggesting that any post-injury deficits were injury related. Results generally indicated that information processing and functional skills have different developmental/recovery trajectories, and are influenced by both pre-and-post injury factors. Furthermore, while the severe TBI group did show recovery on a number of tasks, they continued to perform below the mild and moderate TBI groups, on most tasks, at 24 months post-injury. The study identified specific deficit areas, which may he translated into appropriate treatment interventions