ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the literature on the associated linguistic and cognitive factors that contribute to communication breakdown in paediatric brain injury. It focuses on traumatic brain injury (TBI) with closed head injury (CHI) comprising the largest segment of the population studied. The chapter discusses some major issues related to pediatric brain injury. It discusses the prevalence and nature of formal language problems identified in children with TBI. The chapter summarizes the evidence from discourse studies in TBI. It describes the factors that contribute to communicative disability, such as severity of injury and neuropathophysiologic aspects of the injury. The chapter considers the relationship between discourse function and related cognitive abilities and examines the implications for treatment. On the basis of the current review, the most important conclusion to be drawn is that the communication disability associated with paediatric brain injury is distinct from the classic profile of children with developmental language problems.
