Brain Injury Awareness Month
March is Brain Injury
Awareness Month
While the symptoms of a brain injury in children are similar to those experienced by adults, the functional impact can be very different. Children are not little adults; the brain of a child is still developing. The cognitive impairments of children with brain injury may not be immediately obvious after the injury, but may become apparent as the child gets older. These implications can create lifetime challenges for living and learning for children, their families, schools, and communities. In this section, you will find various resources for dealing with the most common implications of brain injury in children.
Overview:
An acquired brain injury (ABI) is an injury to the brain that is not hereditary, congenital, degenerative, or induced by birth trauma. Essentially, this type of brain injury is one that has occurred after birth. The injury results in a change to the brain’s neuronal activity, which affects the physical integrity, metabolic activity, or functional ability of nerve cells in the brain.
There are two types of acquired brain injury: traumatic and non-traumatic.
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is defined as an alteration in brain function, or other evidence of brain pathology, caused by an external force. Traumatic impact injuries can be defined as closed (or non-penetrating) or open (penetrating).
A non-traumatic brain injury is an alteration in brain function or pathology caused by an internal force.
| Traumatic Brain Injury Causes | Non-Traumatic Brain Injury Causes |
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Brain injury is unpredictable in its consequences. Brain injury affects who we are and the way we think, act, and feel. It can change everything about us in a matter of seconds. The most important things to remember are:
- A person with a brain injury is a person first.
- No two brain injuries are exactly the same.
- The effects of a brain injury are complex and vary greatly from person to person.
- The effects of a brain injury depend on such factors as cause, location, and severity.
