Initially, it is important to be aware of traumatic brain injury because it can commonly be misread as a learning disability, emotional disturbance, or an intellectual disability. Since TBI varies from person to person, I would immediately communicate with staff in the school and parents at home to best understand what changes have occurred. The individual’s needs must be assessed thoroughly. I would be sure to constantly reassess how the student is doing because changes can occur during the recovery process. Some students will never fully recover either. When reading a story about a child with TBI, I found it very emotional and eye-opening, especially when reading that “Her friends and teachers think her brain has healed because her broken bones have”.
Helping a student get socially involved makes them feel more included to ease the transition of coping with TBI. Having a student with TBI who struggles with organization help plan a school event is one way to make this student feel included. This idea aids in many areas of development as well as the cognitive function of organizing. There is also the component of high investment and freedom of choice which assists in intrinsic motivation.
Since memory is often affected asking a student to repeat instructions back to the teacher is helpful. I have found myself practicing this task when I am at work training a new employee. It’s generally a lot of new information to absorb, so I have them repeat things back to me all the time to be sure they are retaining the information. I have seen much better results in employee’s knowledge of the job than I did before I started having my future employees repeat things back to me.
It's important to be sensitive to the transitions a student with TBI is experiencing. The things they were once capable of doing become daunting. By doing social activities that rely on team effort and support as well as redundancy can help this student feel more secure as they learn to cope with new challenges in their life.