Videos

Concussion is widespread and prevailing injury in children and adolescents. The CDC estimates upwards of 4 million concussions occur each year. With estimates stating at least ¼ of students with concussion experience visual dysfunction; teachers, counselors, and educational administrators play an important role when making academic accommodations to ensure a proper road to recovery for the concussed student. Physical and occupational therapists have the potential to be gatekeepers in detection of visual dysfunction, as well as co-management of student therapy. Therapists treating vestibular deficits in persons following concussion must be familiar with screening, gross evaluation, and treatment techniques for common ocular motor and vestibular related pathology. This lecture will provide educators, therapists and counselors alike with the tools to better understand the role of the visual system when encountering students have persistent post-concussion syndrome.

The 2nd webinar in the BrainSTEPS: Return to Learn Fall 2014 Webinar Series: K-12 Students with Concussion Webinar Series focuses on managing concussions within the classroom setting. Returning to the full demands of school too soon following concussion can significantly increase and prolong symptoms. This period of recovery should be appropriately planned for and supported by school personnel until the concussion has resolved. Most concussions resolve within the first 3-4 weeks, but 80-90% can linger several months or more. If the student does not recover within 4 weeks, a referral to the local IU based BrainSTEPS team should occur. Teachers should be equipped with a solid understanding of what concussions are, how symptoms manifest in the classroom, and what accommodations should be implemented immediately to promote student recovery. Current Return to Learn/School Progression Steps will be discussed. Stressed throughout will be the importance of having concussed students return to the classroom setting as soon as possible, after several initial days of brain rest, as long as accommodations are in place. This webinar will also emphasize the importance of school districts joining the 670+ district based “Return to Learn Concussion Management Teams (CMTs)” currently in PA who have been trained by the BrainSTEPS Program (www.brainsteps.net). CMTs play a key role in the ongoing monitoring of symptoms and academics until recovery, as well immediate implementation of symptom based accommodations to lessen high levels of cognitive over exertion that can prolong student recovery.

Students with brain injury have learning needs that are often not reflected on their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). This interactive presentation will offer tools and strategies to help turn the unique educational needs of students with brain injury into meaningful IEPs that can lead to effective programming and improve student outcomes.

In this presentation, Mary Anne Wolf will provide an overview of how the human brain learned to read and how this body of information can inform our understanding of reading development, dyslexia, and teaching. Participants will hear an emphasis on the implications of this view for interventions with struggling readers and will discuss how children are changing as the result of immersion in digital media.

This session will provide specific intervention strategies to maximize cognitive and communication function in adolescents with acquired brain injury, based on benchmarks in adolescent brain and behavior development and common cognitive and communication impairments in adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), as well as other types of acquired brain injuries (injuries occurring after birth).

This webinar will train educational professionals, medical professionals and families to identify the symptoms of traumatic brain injury in children, describe the connection between traumatic brain injuries and epilepsy, and define how to recognize and provide first aid for seizures. The programs and services of the BrainSTEPS Program and the Epilepsy Foundation Western/Central Pennsylvania will also be discussed

This session provides updates on national trends for educators who work with students with Acquired Brain Injuries (both traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries). Best practices for providing information to educators, (including interprofessional education), current thinking about TBI as a chronic condition, and suggestions for providing support in the classroom and community will be discussed.

Executive skills refer to the cognitive processes required to plan and organize activities, including task initiation and follow through, planning/organization, working memory, performance monitoring, inhibition of impulses, and self-regulation. Executive skills involve the integration of information across brain regions, particularly the frontal lobes, and therefore any type of significant acquired brain injury is likely to negatively impact executive skills. These skills are at the heart of what is seen as independent problem solving, goal directed persistence, and motivation. Students with executive skill deficits have problems in all these domains, and they present tremendous challenges to both parents and teachers who often find themselves frustrated by children whose problems in school seem to have little to do with how smart they are or how easily they learn.

Executive skills refer to the cognitive processes required to plan and organize activities, including task initiation and follow through, planning/organization, working memory, performance monitoring, inhibition of impulses, and self-regulation. Executive skills involve the integration of information across brain regions, particularly the frontal lobes, and therefore any type of significant acquired brain injury is likely to negatively impact executive skills. These skills are at the heart of what is seen as independent problem solving, goal directed persistence, and motivation. Students with executive skill deficits have problems in all these domains, and they present tremendous challenges to both parents and teachers who often find themselves frustrated by children whose problems in school seem to have little to do with how smart they are or how easily they learn.