The return to school following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is fraught
with challenges for children and adolescents, their families, and school
professionals. This volume provides the practical knowledge needed to
understand the neuropsychological problems associated with TBI and
facilitate students' reintegration into the regular or special education
classroom. Research-based strategies are presented for assessing and
accommodating each student's needs, with suggestions for testing that
can be completed by practitioners without extensive neuropsychological
training. Featuring numerous illustrative clinical examples, the book
also includes an extended case history that brings to life the entire
process of recovery from TBI.
Reviewing basic neuroanatomy, the book first discusses the functional
problems and areas of learning difficulty that typically arise from
different types of injury. It explores the associated emotional
challenges and issues facing families, emphasizing the importance of
working closely with parents and building effective home-school
partnerships. Identified and briefly described are over 30 psychological
measures that can be used to evaluate cognitive and academic skills;
memory and learning; attention; executive and reasoning skills;
visual-motor and perceptual skills; and psychosocial, emotional, and
behavioral functioning. Detailed sample assessments are provided for two
students with injuries of varying severity, showing how test results and
other information can be integrated into a useful comprehensive report.
Guidelines are then presented for managing school reentry and conducting
team-based planning and decision making. General programming
considerations are discussed, as are specific interventions that
incorporate knowledge from the fields of ADHD, learning disabilities,
and adult rehabilitation.
Written in a clear, non-technical style, this book is an essential
resource for school psychologists, counselors, and social workers;
special education professionals; and other clinicians working with young
people. It will also serve as a text in graduate-level
neuropsychological assessment courses.
