Late Appearing Brain Injury Consequences
The underdeveloped brain of a child or adolescent may be more seriously injured than is outwardly apparent at first blush.
Some consequences may not be visible, and it may be that some get overlooked or unnoticed until the child reaches a certain age of physical maturity.
When because of a serious brain injury to a child, the mental maturity does not match that chronologic age, then the difference between what actually exists and what reasonably should exist may be due to the brain injury.
Such differences may be a mix of small differences. A slightly unexpected emotional sensitivity. A different way of interpreting social circumstances.
Along the way, this accidentally brain damaged child may acquire diagnosis of ADD, ADHD, Austism and other conditions. Some of these diagnoses may be correct. Some may not.
Today, children need to be able to process multiple pieces of information, rapidly.
Schools are online, offices use email with attachments, computers and the Internet require methodical and organized patterns of thought.
It can be argued that the consequences of a Child’s Accidental Brain Injury is magnitudes greater today than in years past, because the need for information processing and the complexity of the daily environment has changed the difficulty level of what it means to be impaired due to a brain injury.
A specialist expert called a ” Neuropsychologist” may test your child and then a year later, test your child again and compare the results. The Neuropsychologist may be able to determine what areas of the brain are impaired, and what functions of higher level reasoning are affected.
This is a somewhat scarce specialty, and these experts often administer tests that you might think are simple but actually they can tell a lot about the child’s mental status. The child must be able and willing to cooperate, and these tests can last for several hours, spread out over a day or more, several sessions.
