Students with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)

Students with brain injury are becoming increasingly prevalent on college campuses. These students often exhibit one or more of the following symptoms:

• Short-term memory problems
• Serious attention deficits
• Auditory dysfunction
• Cognitive deficits
• Problems with behavior judgment
• Acquired language difficulties
• Serious anxiety attacks.
• May confabulate: Psychology; To fill in gaps in one’s memory with fabrications that one believes to be facts

Symptoms may be similar to those of students with learning disabilities. Each case of Traumatic Brain Injury is different, with symptoms depending largely on the area of the brain that received damage. For the TBI survivor, and other disabilities that affect endurance or general health, the following are some accommodations for the faculty of our campus to consider:

• Reasonable consideration for absences or lateness
• Providing a series of short tests to replace long tests

Many of the difficulties an instructor will experience will revolve around the possible cognitive deficits and with social/behavior impulsivity and disturbances. The student may be unaware of what is appropriate behavior in certain situations, or may be developmentally impaired due to a TBI sustained while they were younger. Some behavioral attributes of an individual with TBI may include:

• Being more impulsive
• Hyperactivity
• Easily distractible
• Displaying socially inappropriate actions
• Being verbally intrusive
• Displaying poor situational judgment
• The student may still maintain their pre-trauma self-concept of his/her own abilities and behaviors
• The student may have large differences in ability levels that may seem hard to understand; For example, an individual whose reading comprehension is four grade levels lower than his/her spelling ability
• Being able to learn some materials more rapidly than others, possibly due to previous familiarity with the subject matter
• The student may have severe problems generalizing and integrating information
• Being unable to process information presented through usual strategies because their levels of comprehension may decrease as the complexity of the material increases
• Having more pronounced difficulty with organization of their thoughts, cause and effect relationships, and problem solving

Response letter :

Dr. Marsha Driscoll;

Assistant Professor, BSU.

I think that the difficult issues for faculty are unexpected behaviors and inconsistency in ability. Frequently, those who have experienced a TBI are quite emotional and impulsive. An individual might become much angrier than you would expect, or may become tearful in a situation where you would not expect that to happen. We are not used to people expressing such strong emotions and it can be frightening.

The most effective way for a teacher to respond in a situation like that is to be patient and to give the student plenty of time to get through the tempest. Give them time to get through the problem and stay focused on the issue not the emotional reaction. We are not used to behavior such as interrupting in a lecture. We consider it to be inconsiderate even when there is not intention on the part of the student to be rude. An individual who is coping with a TBI may have difficulty controlling some of their behaviors. It is most effective for an instructor to focus on the original intent for the class, but be patient with a person who may not be able to control their impulses.

Inconsistency can be tremendously frustrating because we all have the tendency to assume that we all have some constant level of ability. If someone speaks fluently we expect them to be able to read well. If they write well we expect them to be able to understand lecture materials. When they do not do well with one particular form of learning we tend to blame the student for it. “If they studied harder, if they paid more attention,” etc… When in fact, especially with TBI but with other disabilities as well, people do not consistently do well, and it is not because of some personal failing of character. It is also true that faculty can not be expected to understand every diagnosis, so it is important that students who have disabilities communicate with their teachers and that faculty should use the Disabilities Office as a resource when they have questions about their student’s abilities. Every case is different. Do not expect them all to be alike. The symptoms of TBI are very wide ranging. As with all disabilities, the good news is that we are better able to make appropriate accommodations than we used to be, and we have more resources to help us.

Answers to the Matching Quiz:

Albert Einstein: E . Possibly both Asperger’s syndrome and Dyslexia, most noted for his theory of relativity and E=mc2. Henry Ford: K or F. Dyslexic, Invented the model-T. Itzack Perlman: A or I.. Polio, musician from India. Leonardo da Vinci: K or F . Dyslexic, Famous painter and inventor during the Renaissance. Judi Chamberlin: H. Clinical Depression, Mental Patient’s Liberation Activist. Harriet Tubman: D. Epilepsy, Leader of the Underground Railroad, struck on the head by an overseer as a slave. Tomas Malthus: J. Cleft palate, Prominent English political economist and mathematician in late 1700’s. Franklin D. Roosevelt: A or I. Polio, President of the United States. Ludwig van Beethoven: L. Deaf, Prominent classical composer. Wilma Mankiller: C. Muscular dystrophy, First female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. Helen Keller: B . Blind and deaf, Fever as a baby, became prominent activist. Montel Williams: G. Multiple sclerosis, Popular talk show host.

Student Enrollment by Disability Category 2004-2006

During the 2004-05 academic year the Disability Services Office served 303 students with documented disabilities. During the academic year, 40 students graduated from BSU; one student earned an AAS degree, 3 students earned an Associate of Arts degree, 36 students earned Bachelor of Arts or Science degrees. Two students are deceased and 210 students returned fall semester.

This year, 2005-06, enrollment is down 17% from last year. We are currently serving 251 students and that is not the final total for the year. To date, 25 students have received their degree (summer and fall awards).

Fall GPA’s of Students with Disabilities

Two hundred fifteen students were enrolled on campus fall semester, full or part time, and finished coursework with either all incompletes or with a GPA of 0.00 or higher. This does not include students taking coursework with S/P/U/NP grades or those finishing incompletes for summer or fall enrollment. Seventy-seven percent of the students had a GPA of 2.00 or higher for fall semester. The breakdown of GPA’s is as follows:

Famous Matches

See if you know which famous person had which disability.