This text-based course is a written transcript of the event, “Evaluation and Assessment of Cognitive‑Communication Disorders in Individuals with TBI” presented by Victoria Harding on November 21, 2011.
>>Amy Natho: I would like to welcome you to the SpeechPathlogy.com e‑learning expert seminar entitled “Evaluation and Assessment of Cognitive‑Communication Disorders in Individuals with TBI.” We're very pleased to have Tori Harding back with us to present today. My name is Amy Natho and I'll be your moderator for this online course. At this time it is my great pleasure and an honor to introduce Victoria (Tori) Harding. Tori Harding provides specialized program and location development for Neuro‑Restorative and acts as the Clinical Projects Coordinator for Virginia NeuroCare, a Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center program in Charlottesville, Virginia. Tori's primary research and clinical interest areas include outcome measurements in post‑acute settings, the self‑efficacy mechanism and post-acute brain injury, neurogenic communication disorders and family training for long‑term success and advocacy. As a speech‑language pathologist, she works as a clinician and an educator and as a certified brain injury trainer. She teaches through the Academy of Brain Injury specialists. Currently a Ph.D. candidate at James Madison University, Tori received her Master's Degree of Business Administration at Plymouth State University and completed her Master's of Science Pathology at Dalhousie university in Nova Scotia, Canada. Tori, thank you for being here and we're so glad to have you back and eager to hear what you have to say today.
Evaluation and Assessment of Cognitive-Communication Disorders in Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury
>> Victoria Harding: Thank you so much. I'm delighted to see that there is a good amount of attendance today. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to come and talk a little bit about evaluation and assessment of cognitive-communication disorders in individuals with TBI. Typically, I know we all like to attend presentations that have some good opportunity for some practical application, and I think this falls into this category; however, I really enjoy a lot of visuals in slide shows and unfortunately this presentation is pretty text rich. There is so much material to cover specific to this that you may find you're reading more than is typical, and there are very few diagrams or photos. It tends to be pretty text rich. We're not going to talk about selecting test materials based on the given population. We're going to be talking about tests that have been determined to be valid and applicable to this population, and have been recommended for use. So we're not going to necessarily be getting into which test to choose from your shelf based on a presenting challenge, but rather, those tests that are recommended for use with this population.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Just a little brief review of TBI as opposed to acquired brain injury (TBI certainly is a kind of acquired brain injury): When we're talking about TBI, we're defining it as “an alteration in brain function or other evidence of brain pathology caused by an external force.” So, for example, a gunshot wound to the head is certainly a TBI, whereas a near drowning event, which is an anoxic event, is not TBI. That is an acquired injury. A stroke is not a TBI, it is an acquired injury. A brain tumor is not a TBI, it is an acquired brain injury. Exposure to environmental toxins is an acquired brain injury, not a traumatic brain injury. For the rest of the time we have together today, we're really talking about those TBIs, the alteration in brain function or other evidence of brain pathology caused by an external force.
