Systematic review and meta-analysis of cognitive interventions for children with central nervous system disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of cognitive interventions for children with neurological disorders, acquired brain injuries, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Method: We searched for randomized controlled trials of cognitive interventions; 13 studies met inclusion criteria. Risk of bias was rated for each study.

Friendship quality and psychosocial outcomes among children with traumatic brain injury.

This study examined differences in friendship quality between children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and orthopedic injury (OI) and behavioral outcomes for children from both groups. Participants were 41 children with TBI and 43 children with OI (M age=10.4).

Functional plasticity in childhood brain disorders: when, what, how, and whom to assess.

At every point in the lifespan, the brain balances malleable processes representing neural plasticity that promote change with homeostatic processes that promote stability. Whether a child develops typically or with brain injury, his or her neural and behavioral outcome is constructed through transactions between plastic and homeostatic processes and the environment. In clinical research with children in whom the developing brain has been malformed or injured, behavioral outcomes provide an index of the result of plasticity, homeostasis, and environmental transactions.

Social and behavioral outcomes: pre-injury to six months following childhood traumatic brain injury.

This study aimed to extend the limited research investigating social and behavioral outcomes following childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI). The study compared pre-and post-injury measures of these skills and investigated the role of pre-injury child status and pre-injury family functioning in the prediction of outcome at six months post-injury. A secondary aim was to compare rates of impairment at six months post-injury between children post-TBI and a typically developing (TD) control group.

Executive functions, social information processing, and social adjustment in young children born with very low birth weight.

Children born with very low birth weight (VLBW) are at risk for neurocognitive and behavioral sequelae. Although VLBW infants are at higher risk for deficits in executive functions (EFs) and social functioning during school-age years, few studies have investigated those sequelae or their association in young children born VLBW. We examined the associations between EFs and social functioning in preterm, VLBW children age 4-6 years (n = 20) and matched, term-born, normal birth weight controls admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after birth (n = 18).

Paediatric patients with abusive head trauma treated in US Emergency Departments, 2006-2009.

Objective: To study characteristics and outcomes of paediatric patients with abusive head trauma (AHT) treated in emergency departments.

Methods: Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) data were analysed. The CDC recommended AHT definition was used to classify children ≤ 4 years with head trauma into AHT and non-AHT groups.

Heterogeneity of brain lesions in pediatric traumatic brain injury.

Objective: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a method to identify and quantify abnormalities resulting from traumatic brain injury (TBI). MRI abnormalities in children with TBI have not been fully characterized according to the frequency, location, and quantitative measurement of a range of pathologies critical for studies of neuropsychological outcome. Here, we report MRI findings from a large, multicenter study of childhood TBI, the Social Outcomes of Brain Injury in Kids (SOBIK) study, which compared qualitative and quantitative neuroimaging findings in 72 children with complicated mild-to-severe TBI to 52 children with orthopedic injury (OI).

Neuroimaging and social behavior in children after traumatic brain injury: findings from the Social Outcomes of Brain Injury in Kids (SOBIK) study.

Background: Neuroimaging studies identified either focal and/or non-specific frontotemporolimbic damage resulting from mild-complicated to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a subset of 12 children 8-12 years of age who were part of the Social Outcomes of Brain Injury in Kids (SOBIK) study. The influence of identifiable damage on social behavior was examined.

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging was obtained on average 2.

Cognitive outcomes following arterial ischemic stroke in infants and children.

This study sought to investigate cognitive outcomes following pediatric arterial ischemic stroke and explore predictors. Participants included 36 children with perinatal or childhood arterial ischemic stroke and a comparison group of 15 children with asthma. Outcomes included cognitive ability, executive functions, and neurological function (Pediatric Stroke Outcome Measure).

Social competence at 6 months following childhood traumatic brain injury.

Children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at risk for social impairment. This study aimed to examine social function at 6 months post-TBI and to explore the contribution of injury, cognitive, and environmental influences. The sample included 136 children, 93 survivors of TBI, and 43 healthy controls.

Injury versus noninjury factors as predictors of postconcussive symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury in children.

Objective: To examine the relative contributions of injury characteristics and noninjury child and family factors as predictors of postconcussive symptoms (PCS) following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children.

Method: Participants were 8- to 15-year-old children, 186 with mild TBI and 99 with mild orthopedic injuries (OI). Parents and children rated PCS shortly after injury and at 1, 3, and 12 months postinjury.

Peer relationships of children with traumatic brain injury.

This study examined peer relationships in children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) relative to children with orthopedic injuries (OI), and explored whether differences in peer relationships correlated with white matter volumes. Classroom procedures were used to elicit peer perceptions of social behavior, acceptance, and friendships for eighty-seven 8- to 13-year-old children, 15 with severe TBI, 40 with complicated mild/moderate TBI, and 32 with OI. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) were used to investigate volumetric correlates of peer relationship measures.

Irony and empathy in children with traumatic brain injury.

Social communication involves influencing what other people think and feel about themselves. We use the term conative theory of mind (ToM) to refer to communicative interactions involving one person trying to influence the mental and emotional state of another, paradigmatic examples of which are irony and empathy. This study reports how children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) understand ironic criticism and empathic praise, on a task requiring them to identify speaker belief and intention for direct conative speech acts involving literal truth, and indirect speech acts involving either ironic criticism or empathic praise.

Cognitive, affective, and conative theory of mind (ToM) in children with traumatic brain injury.

We studied three forms of dyadic communication involving theory of mind (ToM) in 82 children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 61 children with orthopedic injury (OI): Cognitive (concerned with false belief), Affective (concerned with expressing socially deceptive facial expressions), and Conative (concerned with influencing another's thoughts or feelings). We analyzed the pattern of brain lesions in the TBI group and conducted voxel-based morphometry for all participants in five large-scale functional brain networks, and related lesion and volumetric data to ToM outcomes. Children with TBI exhibited difficulty with Cognitive, Affective, and Conative ToM.

Emotional expression and socially modulated emotive communication in children with traumatic brain injury.

Facial emotion expresses feelings, but is also a vehicle for social communication. Using five basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger) in a comprehension paradigm, we studied how facial expression reflects inner feelings (emotional expression) but may be socially modulated to communicate a different emotion from the inner feeling (emotive communication, a form of affective theory of mind). Participants were 8- to 12-year-old children with TBI (n = 78) and peers with orthopedic injuries (n = 56).

Age at injury and long-term behavior problems after traumatic brain injury in young children.

Objective: This study examined the effects of age at injury on the persistence of behavior problems and social skill deficits in young children with complicated mild to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Method: A concurrent cohort/prospective research design was used with repeated assessments of children with TBI (n = 82) or Orthopedic Injury (OI) (n = 114). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions, and the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales or the Home and Community Social and Behavior Scales shortly after injury to assess preinjury functioning, and at an extended follow-up an average of 38 months postinjury.

Theory of mind in children with traumatic brain injury.

Theory of mind (ToM) involves thinking about mental states and intentions to understand what other people know and to predict how they will act. We studied ToM in children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and age- and gender-matched children with orthopedic injuries (OI), using a new three-frame Jack and Jill cartoon task that measures intentional thinking separate from contingent task demands. In the key ToM trials, which required intentional thinking, Jack switched a black ball from one hat to another of a different color, but Jill did not witness the switch; in the otherwise identical non-ToM trials, the switch was witnessed.

A randomized trial of teen online problem solving: efficacy in improving caregiver outcomes after brain injury.

Objective: To examine the results of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of Teen Online Problem Solving (TOPS), an online problem solving therapy model, in increasing problem-solving skills and decreasing depressive symptoms and global distress for caregivers of adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Method: Families of adolescents aged 11-18 who sustained a moderate to severe TBI between 3 and 19 months earlier were recruited from hospital trauma registries. Participants were assigned to receive a web-based, problem-solving intervention (TOPS, n = 20), or access to online resources pertaining to TBI (Internet Resource Comparison; IRC; n = 21).

Cognitive predictors of academic achievement in young children 1 year after traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To examine cognitive predictors of academic achievement in young children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and orthopedic injury (OI) shortly after injury and 1 year postinjury.

Methods: Participants included 3- to 6-year-old children, 63 with TBI (46 with moderate TBI and 17 with severe TBI) and a comparison group of 80 children with OI. Academic achievement was assessed approximately 1 and 12 months postinjury using three subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-Third Edition and the School Readiness Composite from the Bracken Basic Concepts Scale-Revised.

Reliable change in postconcussive symptoms and its functional consequences among children with mild traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE To examine reliable change in postconcussive symptoms and its functional consequences among children with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) over the first year postinjury as compared with children with orthopedic injuries. DESIGN Prospective, longitudinal cohort. SETTING Emergency departments at 2 children's hospitals.

Emerging narrative discourse skills 18 months after traumatic brain injury in early childhood.

This study examined the longer term effect of traumatic brain injury (TBI), approximately 18 months post-injury, on emerging narrative discourse skills of 85 children with orthopaedic injury (OI), 43 children with moderate TBI, and 19 children with severe TBI who were between 3 years and 6 years 11 months at injury. Children with TBI performed worse than children with OI on most discourse indices. Children with severe TBI were less proficient than children with moderate TBI at identifying unimportant story information.

Mothers report more child-rearing disagreements following early brain injury than do fathers.

Objective: To investigate differences between mother's and father's perceptions of marital relationship quality, child rearing disagreements, and family functioning over the initial 18 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in early childhood relative to an orthopedic-injury comparison group.

Methods: Participants included 147 parent-dyads of children with TBI (n = 53) and orthopedic injuries (OI; n = 94) who were between the ages of 3 and 7 years at injury. Family functioning, marital quality, and child-rearing disagreements were assessed shortly after injury and at 6, 12, and 18-month follow-ups, with ratings at the initial assessment completed to reflect preinjury functioning.

Caregiver ratings of long-term executive dysfunction and attention problems after early childhood traumatic brain injury: family functioning is important.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship of family and parenting factors to long-term executive dysfunction and attention problems after early childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI). We hypothesized that the magnitude of executive dysfunction and attention problems would be moderated by family and parenting factors.

Design: A multicenter, prospective cohort study that included an orthopedic injury (OI) reference group.

Emotion labeling and socio-emotional outcomes 18 months after early childhood traumatic brain injury.

A growing body of literature has documented evidence for emotion labeling (EL) deficits after traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, long-term effects of TBI on EL abilities, particularly among young children, are unclear. We investigated EL abilities and socio-emotional outcomes in 32 children with moderate-severe TBI, 23 with complicated-mild TBI, and 82 children with orthopedic injuries (OI), shortly after injury and at 18 months post-injury. All children were between 3:0 and 6:11 years of age at the time of injury.