What Goals and Needs do Adolescents and Young Adults Identify for Rehabilitation After Traumatic Brain Injury? A Quantitative Online Survey

Background/Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common injury leading to hospitalisation in childhood. Symptoms may persist for a long time and interfere with activities in daily life, leisure, and school (postconcussion syndrome; Bonfert et al., 2022; GNPI, 2022). The impact of TBI on bio-psychosocial functioning is currently a research gap in the field of psychosocial functioning, particularly in children and adolescents.

Methods: As part of an online survey, adolescents and young adults (n = 29) were asked about the cognitive, emotional, and social effects of TBI. These questions covered the areas of school/work, family, friends, and speech and language therapy. The construction of the questionnaire, based on the ICF model, also used items from established questionnaires such as from established questionnaires such as the LCQ (Büttner-Kunert et al., 2021) and Quolibri-Ado (von Steinbüchel et al., 2022).

Results: There was a high need for speech and language therapy support in all contexts. Particularly in the school or work environment, there are significant difficulties due to cognitive-communicative dysfunctions (e.g., concentration and attention problems and discourse impairments), even long after the TBI. Acceptance and understanding from family and friends were mentioned as resources.

Conclusion: The study can be used as a starting point for broader focus group studies on cognitive-communicative dysfunctions in pediatric TBI. Future research should focus on the relationship between cognitive-communicative impairments and the participation of children/young people in their personal-social environment, as well as in school, education, and work.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
26. September 2025