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Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Description of TBI
- “Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a form of nondegenerative acquired brain injury, resulting from an external physical force to the head (e.g., fall) or other mechanisms of displacement of the brain within the skull (e.g., blast injuries).” -ASHA
How the disorder is diagnosed.
- A cognitive evaluation by a neurologist with formal neuropsychological testing.
- Evaluations by physical, occupational and speech therapists will help clarify the specific deficits of an individual.
- A detailed neurological examination is important and will bring useful evidence of brain injury.
- Brain imaging with CAT scan, MRI, SPECT and PET scan may be used.
Associated physical features:
- Associated physical features can be seen in many varying degrees. To name a few notable associated features of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI):
- paresis/paralysis, resulting in reduced muscle strength
- impairments in movement, balance, and/or coordination, including dyspraxia/apraxia
- motor programing deficits such as dyspraxia/apraxia
- Fine motor skills may be compromised
Description of the language abilities associated with TBI
- Phonology – Dysarthria – muscles may be weakened which causes slow or slurred speech. Apraxia of Speech – problems controlling muscles causing the inability to produce certain sounds
- Semantics – Difficulties with word retrieval and naming objects may occur
- Pragmatics – difficulties focusing and off topic utterances may occur
- Syntax – difficulty in reading comprehension and figurative language
- Morphology – difficulties processing abstract language
Children with brain injuries are able to maintain semantics, morphology, and syntax until around fourth grade when language gets more complex, after that all areas of language may be impacted.
