With a four-year, $2.2 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers at Case Western Reserve University will seek answers on how children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) can return to school.
Nearly 2,000 children visit emergency rooms every day with TBI, which include concussions, contusions and symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and blurred vision.
While some educational services are available that help students with TBI return to school, many states do not offer them, and little data exists on outcomes and effectiveness of these programs—despite documented negative long-term academic, social and behavioral challenges experienced by these children.
“We’ve seen children who participate in TBI-related programs show better academic, social and health outcomes than students who do not receive these services—but we need to better understand this relationship to improve educational support resources in the future,” said Angela Ciccia, the grant’s principal investigator and an associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve.