An international perspective on educators’ perceptions of children with Traumatic Brain Injury

BACKGROUND: Educators lack understanding of traumatic brain injury (TBI), which can lead to a lack of appropriate assessment and intervention methods for these students.

OBJECTIVE(S): This qualitative study explored what experienced teachers perceive, believe, and know about pediatric TBI.

METHODS: Following development of a standardized interview protocol, 46 teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and the United States took part in semi-structured interviews. Topics included understanding of the effects of TBI on school performance, supporting a child with TBI in the classroom, and challenges and teaching efficacy in working with students with TBI.

RESULTS: The themes we identified were: personal experience with TBI, lack of content knowledge, non-TBI-specific adaptations, collaboration with experts, need for specific training, confidence in working with students with TBI, and knowledge of students’ rights to service provision. Our findings show that although teachers had little knowledge of TBI, many felt they would be able to adequately support a child with appropriate input from specialists.

CONCLUSION: Teachers fill their knowledge gaps about TBI with their own personal experiences and prior information about working with students with disabilities. These findings support important implications for changes in how we educate and support teachers.