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Traumatic Brain Injury
Brittany Johnson

Traumatic brain injury is an injury to the brain that can disrupt normal brain function.
These injuries can be caused by jolts, gunshot wounds, car accidents, and any other bump to the
head. Children from zero to four years old have the highest occurrences of traumatic brain injury.
Head injuries in young children are more detrimental than they would be in adults, because
young children’s brains are still developing. The damage to their developing brains causes
significant issues as they mature. Some children develop weak muscles due to their accidents
which results in the greater likelihood of more injuries. In addition to more injuries, children
with traumatic brain injury also experience deficits in brain function. A study from Murdoch
Children’s Institute found that children who sustained head injuries at four years old or younger
displayed less control over divided attention (Catroppa, Papoutsis, and Stargatt 2014). This study
showed that the impacts on executive functions are much greater in children that sustained their
injuries at a young age. Damage to the brain affects the way personalities, interactions,
relationships, and everyday functions develop. While it may be difficult, children with traumatic
brain injuries can be reintegrated into the school system. There are numerous classroom
interventions that can be made in the classroom to aid children with traumatic brain injury in
being successful in the classroom. This paper expands upon the effects of traumatic brain injury
in a child’s life and how interventions can be used to reintegrate them into the classroom.
Literature Review

Executive functions play a major role in the success of students in the classroom.
Executive functions are skills that children use in order to focus and juggle multiple tasks at
once. In most cases children with a traumatic brain injury will return to school. However, “a

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