Children With Traumatic Brain Injury. A Parent's Guide The Special Needs Collection

Editorial Review
This is a comprehensive, must-have reference that provides parents with the support and information they need to help their child recover from a closed-head injury and prevent further incidents. Coping with traumatic brain injury (TBI) involves a complex process of readjustment to the changes in a once healthy child and affects everyone in the family. Traumatic brain injury occurs when the brain abruptly and violently moves within the skull as a result of extreme force to the head during an automobile, biking, or playground accident, for example. The effects of TBI can range from mild to severe and recovery can take from weeks to years. Although each child's condition is unique, all TBI patients experience impairment in one or more of the following areas: cognition; emotion/behaviour; and motor skills. While TBI can happen to anyone, children, particularly teens, are susceptible. And, children who have already had one TBI are at greatest risk. Written by a team of medical specialists, therapists, educators, and an attorney, the book covers: what is traumatic brain injury?; medical concerns; rehabilitation and treatments; coping and adjustment; effects on learning and thinking, speech and language, and behaviour; educational needs; and legal issues. Throughout the book, a case study of a boy who was injured at age eight, illustrates the effects of TBI on education, socialisation and independence. Parent statements at the end of each chapter attest to the variety of response families have, and offer insight about the experience of raising a child with TBI. A resource guide of support and advocacy organisations, a reading list, and glossary round out this authoritative guide. This book is useful to professionals who provide services to children with TBI and their families. General and special educators will find it essential reading to help their students with TBI. But most of all, the book gives parents the hope and facts they need to improve the outcome of their child's recovery.
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Customer Reviews

Concise Guide for the Uninitiated

2002-12-01
As a parent of a son with TBI, I have battled schools to find a teacher, administrator, specialist... anyone who understands the confusion and disorganisation in my son's brain. This book, among other things, clearly states the stages of brain rehabilitation, lists possible symptoms, explains in layman's terms how things can appear one way one day, and differently the next. I can speak intelligently to untrained educators using quotes from this book to explain abberrant and unexpected behavior as exhibited by my son. And believe me, the teachers are UNTRAINED in TBI. Ask me, I am a teacher! Everything I have learned about TBI, I taught myself after my son fell and damaged his brain - and this book is the best place to start that I can recommend.

Mother of 9 year old son with severe TBI

2002-05-05
Wonderful book .Probably the most useful book specifically about TBI in children that I have read.Well Done.If you are looking for a book specifically dealing with TBI in children then look no further

Informative, practical, and quite helpful

2001-06-09
As the parent of a child with a Traumatic Brain Injury, I have found this book to be invaluable. It has answered so many questions that were very difficult to find the answers to elsewhere. Dr. Schoenbrodt has done a magnificent job of pulling together information written by different professionals such as a medical doctor, a psychologist, special educators, etc. In this extremely informative book, Dr. Schoenbrodt presents ten different chapters: 1)What is Traumatic Brain Injury?; 2)Rehabilitation and Medical Concerns; 3)Coping as a Family; 4)Helping Your Child Adjust; 5)How TBI Affects Learning and Thinking; 6)How TBI Affects Speech and Language; 7)How TBI Affects Behavior; 8)Strategies for Managing Your Child's Behavior; 9)The Educational Needs of Children with TBI; 10) Legal Issues for Families of Children with TBI. There is also a wonderful resource guide which includes a state-by-state listing of organizations for families that have experienced TBI and a list of informative websites. The material provided is given in a clear, concise, and well-written manner. There are many medical terms used but there is also a glossary explaining them. It is not too difficult for the lay person to read, and yet has much to offer the professional. This book has been more help to me than I can ever express. I live in a very rural area and no one seemed to have much information on TBI. As I read the book, every so often I would come across something and say to myself, "Aha! So that's why my son does this or acts this way." There are also many suggestions to help parents and the child recover emotionally and to manage everyday living. I would highly recommend this book to any member of a family that has suffered TBI, and I would also recommend it to any professional seeking more information on the subject. Thank you, Dr. Schoenbrodt!