The development of emotion and empathy skills after childhood brain injury

Abstract

Lasting socio‐emotional behaviour difficulties are common among children who have suffered brain injuries. A proportion of difficulties may be attributed to impaired cognitive and/or executive skills after injury. A recent and rapidly accruing body of literature indicates that deficits in recognizing and responding to the emotions of others are also common. Little is known about the development of these skills after brain injury. In this paper we summarize emotion‐processing systems, and review the development of these systems across the span of childhood and adolescence. We describe critical phases in the development of emotion recognition skills and the potential for delayed effects after brain injury in earlier childhood. We argue that it is important to identify the specific nature of deficits in reading and responding to emotions after brain injury, so that assessments and early intervention strategies can be devised.

Outcome and cost of childhood brain injury following assault by young people

“…The adult literature suggests up to 30% of patients may experience post-traumatic stress disorder after a severe traumatic brain injury and two-thirds may have long-term behavioural and emotional changes 8 9. Recent paediatric work suggests that potential long-term emotional difficulties can occur and early identification is important 10. The information from this group highlights the typical neurological and emotional sequelae of childhood-acquired brain injury.…”

Empathy and social functioning in anorexia nervosa before and after recovery

“…The SEQ has been validated on children and adults with neuropsychological impairments (Bramham et al, 2009;Clare et al, 2012;Hornak et al, 2003;Nelis et al, 2012;Tonks et al, 2009;Wall, Huw Williams, Morris, & Bramham, 2011). It has been developed with a normative sample involving 84 healthy participants (Bramham et al, 2009), and a factor analysis structure has been established confirming that the questionnaire could reliably be split into five subscales.…”

Inpatient assessment of young people with developmental disabilities who offend

“…This is likely to be due to the impairments brought about by ABI, particularly impairments in emotional regulation increased irritability, executive function deficits and, impaired socio-emotional communicative skills in affected adolescents (Tonks et al, 2009).…”