Assessing Children with Traumatic Brain Injuries

Abstract

Children with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) is one of the new funding categories created by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (PL 101-476). Children with TBI require a different model of educational assessment than other disabling conditions because of the rapid cognitive, emotional, and physical changes that children with TBI undergo in the two years post-incident. To conduct appropriate educational assessment of children with TBI, the medical issues unique to this population must be understood and translated into educationally relevant data. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of traumatic brain injuries and to provide a model of assessment that is educationally relevant to the unique needs of children with TBI. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (PL 101-476; Federal Register, 1990) is an extension and revision of The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (PL 94-142; Federal Register, 1975). While all of the existing funding categories of PL 94-142 remained intact, three new funding categories were created. Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is now a disability eligible for federalfunding under the "other health impaired" clause of PL 101-476. In addition, Autism and Traumatic ,Brain Injury (TBI) are now considered independent funding categories. For the most part, school personnel are experienced in addressing the special needs of children with ADHD and autism. Subsequently, the creation of these two new funding categories is hnlikely to significantly alter assessment and intervention in specialized education settings. However, assessment and intervention for children with TBI is fundamentally different from other disabling conditions even though these children are frequently classified as mentally handicapped,