Childhood Acquired Brain Injury: An Exploratory Study into the Educational Experiences of Children, Their Families and the Professionals who Support Them.

Abstract

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) can result in significant and long lasting additional needs for children, their families and the professionals tasked with supporting them (Middleton, 2001b; Walker & Wicks, 2005). This paper reports the two parts of a small scale study, the aim of which was to illuminate the factors (areas of good practice, issues & challenges) involved in educating children after ABI. The first paper explores the views and experiences of children and young people with ABI and their parents. It identifies how children describe their experiences of school since injury, their parent’s experience of the injury and schooling thereafter, as well as what areas of need exist in terms of improvement in support for this group of children and young people. The second part explores the views and experiences of school based practitioners as well as professionals from a range of external agencies that work with children, young people, their families and schools. The main aims were to stimulate discussion of what roles school staff and external agency professionals have in supporting children with ABI, the ways in which they work together and with children, young people and families and what, if any, improvements were thought to be important. Together, both parts of this research seek to illuminate pertinent factors for those involved, in order to inform future practice for Educational Psychologists (EPs) and the professionals they work with in schools and external agencies.