Achievement of client-centred goals by persons with acquired brain injury in comprehensive day treatment is associated with improved functional outcomes.

Objectives: To study the relationship between goal achievement and vocational and independent living at discharge and 1-year follow-up in persons with acquired brain injury (ABI) participating in a Comprehensive Day Treatment (CDT) programme.

Design: A retrospective review of longitudinal data.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-four participants with ABI were included in the analyses.

Parental distress, parenting practices, and child adaptive outcomes following traumatic brain injury.

Moderate and severe pediatric traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are associated with significant familial distress and child adaptive sequelae. Our aim was to examine the relationship between parental psychological distress, parenting practices (authoritarian, permissive, authoritative), and child adaptive functioning 12-36 months following TBI or orthopedic injury (OI). Injury type was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between parental distress and child adaptive functioning, demonstrating a significantly stronger relationship in the TBI relative to OI group.

Point of entry and functional outcomes after comprehensive day treatment participation.

Objectives: To explore the relationship between point of entry into a comprehensive day treatment (CDT) program and outcomes after acquired brain injury (ABI). We hypothesized that participants entering our program 0 to 6 months postinjury would demonstrate greater declines in neurobehavioral sequelae and improvements in residential/vocational independence than those entering >6 to 12 and >12 to 24 months postinjury.

Design: Retrospective examination of admission, discharge, and 1-year follow-up data from a CDT program.

Quantifying pediatric neuro-oncology risk factors: development of the neurological predictor scale.

Pediatric neuro-oncology researchers face methodological challenges associated with quantifying the influence of tumor and treatment-related risk factors on child outcomes. The Neurological Predictor Scale was developed to serve as a cumulative index of a child's exposure to risk factors. The clinical utility of the Neurological Predictor Scale was explored in a sample of 25 children with heterogeneous brain tumors.

Attention and memory in children with brain tumors.

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test was utilized to examine attention, learning, and memory abilities in 42 children with cerebellar (N = 18) and third ventricle tumors (N = 24). Children with cerebellar tumors exhibited significant auditory attentional impairments and displayed adequate encoding and retrieval across subsequent learning and memory trials. In contrast, children with third ventricle tumors exhibited average auditory attentional abilities, but they displayed mild encoding deficits across trials 2-5.