Children with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) is one of the new funding categories created by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (PL 101-476). Children with TBI require a different model of educational assessment than other disabling conditions because of the rapid cognitive, emotional, and physical changes that children with TBI undergo in the two years post-incident. To conduct appropriate educational assessment of children with TBI, the medical issues unique to this population must be understood and translated into educationally relevant data. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of traumatic brain injuries and to provide a model of assessment that is educationally relevant to the unique needs of children with TBI.
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