The U.S. has some catching up to do. In England, "the Children's Trust wants to raise awareness of acquired brain injury (ABI) among parents and teachers because the effects can be misdiagnosed or just seen as bad behaviour." In launching their campaign, they stated that "some bad behaviour may be a result of an undiagnosed brain injury...the effects can be more noticeable at times of stress, like the move from primary to secondary school. It can affect a child's memory, alter their personality, affect physical skills and reduce their ability to concentrate in class or to develop relationships with peers and teachers."

I'm not aware of any program in the U.S. that seeks to identify ABI or TBI in schoolchildren, although, according to a 2006 CDC study, "The two age groups at highest risk for TBI are 0 to 4 year olds and 15 to 19 year olds." Surely someone has thought of this and there's a program out there that I just haven't heard about. But maybe not. We're only now getting serious about studying TBI in our military (due, of course, to the large number of TBI victims returning from the Iraq War) and in our prisons, two populations obviously at risk.

Where TBI is concerned, seems like we've been content with merely reacting, rather than taking a proactive approach.

Labels: cdc, TBI, TBI research, traumatic brain injury