Cognitive predictors of academic achievement in young children 1 year after traumatic brain injury.

Abstract

Objective To examine cognitive predictors of academic achievement in young children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and orthopedic injury (OI) shortly after injury and 1 year post-injury. Methods Participants included 3 to 6 year old children, 63 with TBI (46 with moderate TBI and 17 with severe TBI) and a comparison group of 80 children with OI. Academic achievement was assessed approximately 1 month and 12 months post injury, using three subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-Third Edition and the School Readiness Composite from the Bracken Basic Concepts Scale-Revised. General intellectual functioning, memory, and executive functions were measured at the initial assessment using standardized tests. Results Hierarchical linear regression was used to predict academic achievement at the initial and 1-year follow-up assessments. Memory and executive functions were significant predictors of academic achievement at both assessments, after controlling for group membership and demographic variables. Executive function remained a significant predictor of some outcomes after taking general intellectual functioning into account. Predictive relationships did not vary across the TBI and OI groups. Similar results were obtained when regression analyses were completed with only TBI participants using the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score as a predictor, although memory and executive functioning were somewhat less robust in predicting academic achievement than before. Conclusions Both memory and executive function predict academic achievement following TBI in preschool children, although some of the associations may be accounted for by general intellectual functioning.

Long-term classroom functioning and its association with neuropsychological and academic performance following traumatic brain injury during early childhood.

“…In their cohort of children sustaining TBI between the ages of 3–12 years, Catroppa and colleagues (2009) found that subacute full scale IQ was positively associated with long-term reading accuracy, spelling, and arithmetic performance. In earlier follow-up of the participants in the current study, Fulton and colleagues (2012) found that subacute inhibitory control and verbal memory were positively associated with academic achievement scores at 1 year post injury. Associations of intellectual functioning and verbal memory with academic achievement are also reported in children who sustained their injuries in middle childhood (Catroppa & Anderson, 1999, 2007).…”

Long-Term School Outcomes of Children and Adolescents With Traumatic Brain Injury

“…The odds of unfavorable academic performance were 18 times higher for young children with TBI than for healthy comparison children 6 . In children ages 3 to 6 years at injury, severe TBI was associated with lower scores than moderate TBI and orthopedic injury groups on measures of applied mathematical reasoning and school readiness at both post-acute and 1 year follow-up evaluations 7, 8 .…”

“…During the initial six months after TBI, core academic skills are commonly reduced in children with a wide range of injury severity. Difficulties have been reported in virtually all academic areas evaluated, including reading, mathematics, and written language in children with TBI as compared to children with orthopedic injuries or healthy children 6–8 . Although some initial improvement in core academic skills typically occurs during the first 6 to 12 months after injury, longitudinal studies indicate a persistent deficit in academic skills from one to five years post-injury 4, 5, 9 .…”

Processing speed, executive function, and academic achievement in children with dextro-transposition of the great arteries: Testing a longitudinal developmental cascade model.

“…Inhibitory control begins to develop early in childhood with adult-level performance on laboratory inhibition tasks typically achieved in late childhood or early adolescence (Bédard, Nichols, Barbosa, Schachar, Logan, & Tannock, 2002; Williams, Ponesse, Schachar, Logan, & Tannock, 1999). Evidence of associations between inhibition and academic outcomes exists but is fairly equivocal: whereas some studies have documented links to literacy and math achievement (see Allan, Hume, Allan, Farrington, & Lonigan, 2014 for recent meta-analysis; Blair & Razza, 2007; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Clark, Sheffield, Chevalier, Nelson, Wiebe, & Espy, 2013; Fulton, Yeates, Taylor, Walz, & Wade, 2012; Passolunghi & Siegel, 2004; St Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006), others have failed to find significant correlations between inhibitory control processes and academic performance (e.g., Kim, Nordling, Yoon, Boldt, & Kochanska, 2013). …”