Pediatric acquired conditions: Brain and spinal cord injuries.

Abstract

Children with brain injuries and spinal cord injuries (SCIs) often require rehabilitation services. As such, rehabilitation psychologists working in pediatric rehabilitation settings should be familiar with these disorders. In this chapter, an overview of acquired brain injury (ABI) and SCI in children is provided. For discussion of adult SCI or traumatic brain injury (TBI), see Chapters 17 and 18, this volume. ACQUIRED BRAIN INJURYChildren experience ABI resulting from events such as head trauma, hypoxic injuries, stroke, brain tumor, and infectious disease processes. In this section, we focus on children with TBI. Relative to other etiologies of ABI, TBI represents the most common etiology of pediatric ABI. In addition, this section focuses on moderate to severe TBI, as these children are more likely to receive services in a rehabilitation setting.