A Traumtic Brain Injury

A Traumatic Brain Injury is defined as a disruption to the normal functioning of the brain. It is damage caused by external forces whether a blow, a jolt or a penetrating head injury; something happens to the brain, due to a blocked vessel, swelling, or an infection in the brain. Brain injuries can be open or closed. A brain injury is open when something from the outside penetrates the skull. A closed head injury can be a blunt blow to the head but can also be rapid changes of skull motion e.g., violent shaking forces, a contact injury with a windshield etc.

Cognitive Difficulties: Memory

3a) Define or describe the difficulties or what the concept means and how it might impact a student with TBI

People who suffer a traumatic brain injury have difficulty following a class schedule, being on time to class, submitting homework on time due to lack of remembering, forgetting to take medication. A person with TBI, depending on the severity of the injury, may struggle remembering information and events that has been introduced recently. Also, these people struggle more with short-term memory than their long-term memory, which indicates why people are usually able to recall what happened a long time ago. It is also possible for the person to only remember parts of an event and the person may put the memories together and create one of which they have filled in the gaps within the event with things that didn’t really happen but they remember happening due to the gap filling they are doing.

3b) For what other disability area is this difficulty often evident?

Victims of a Traumatic Brain Injury may have long-term and short-term memory difficulties, which is a common characteristic of children with a Learning Disability. Children wit...

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...are their responses with a peer. Turnbull also suggests monitoring student’s responses and if the student is not showing any signs of understanding the content then adjust instruction immediately and not once the lesson has been given (301). It is also important to inform the child about correct and incorrect responses. This immediate feedback allows the child with language processing difficulties to see when he/she is performing in a desired way and what he/she may need to work on. After giving the student time to process information and formulate his/her thoughts, allow the child to summarize information in his/her own words if necessary. Overall, it is important for the teacher to remember to limit conversation to one person at a time to limit multiple verbal input, and speak slowly and not about too much that can require skills the person has not developed yet.