Pediatric Brain Injury: Misconceptions, Challenges, and a Call To Reconceptualize our Role in the Schools

Abstract

Abstract Brain injury management in the pediatric population is a growing public health concern. Serving children with brain injuries in the schools presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and other professions providing clinical or educational services. We recently conducted a national survey of school-based SLPs aimed at characterizing pediatric brain injury knowledge and management practices with a specific focus on concussion (Stuck & Duff, 2011). Drawing on results from our survey, this article will: 1) address the common misconception that young children are more resistant to or have better outcomes following brain injury than adults; 2) discuss the concept of delayed onset of symptoms following brain injury and the challenges this phenomenon presents in serving children with brain injury in the schools; and 3) discuss the role of the SLP in brain injury management in the schools and how changes to our approach to brain injury management in the schools may ultimately improve the quality of services to students recovering from brain injury.