| Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of brain damage, disability, and death. The annual incidence of emergency visits due to TBI is approximated to be between 180 and 300 per 100,000 (Guthrie, Mast, Richards, McQuaid, & Pavlakis, 1999; Lajiness-O'Neill, Erdodi, & Bigler, 2010; Maas, Stocchetti, & Bullock, 2008). The primary neuropsychological impairment caused by mild to severe TBI is the reduction of information processing speed, which can contribute to deficits of attention, orientation and executive functioning (Miotto, Cinalli, Serrao, Benute, Lucia, & Scaff, 2010). As a result of executive function impairments, other areas such as, mental flexibility, planning, self-monitoring, and problem solving are also affected, thus compromising other abilities such as, memory (Catroppa & Anderson, 2006; Schooler, Caplan, Revell, Salazar, & Grafman, 2008). Additionally, children with verbal memory difficulties involving list learning were significantly more likely to be placed in special education 12-24 months post-injury (Catroppa & Anderson, 2007). Predictors of academic achievement 12-months post-injury were evaluated in 19 moderate to severe TBI subjects. As a result, processing speed, working memory, and intellectual quotient predicted academic achievement 12-months post-injury. However, verbal memory, Glasgow Coma Scale and parental education did not predict academic achievement 12-months post-injury in children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury.;Keywords: traumatic brain injury, verbal memory, processing speed, working memory, academic performance. |
