Frontal Lobe Injury in Children

The frontal lobe is the part of your brain that governs social and sexual behaviors as well as facets of personality and emotional reasoning. A brain injury that happens in childhood can have long-term effects as the child matures.

Causes

• Frontal lobe damage can occur for a number of reasons such as child abuse (shaken baby syndrome), bicycle and car accidents, sporting injuries and falls.

Early Development

• Because a child's frontal lobes do not achieve full growth until around age 16, it can be very difficult to diagnose brain damage, especially in an infant who cannot yet speak.

Cerebral Edema (Swelling)

• If the blood vessels in the brain dilate, blood can saturate the brain matter and increase pressure within the skull. This can be fatal and can occur several hours after the brain injury, even if the child appears to have sustained no damage.

Skull Thickness

• A child's skull is only 1/8 as thick as an adult's skull. A sharp blow to the forehead, from a fall or an accident, can cause the skull to shatter and drive pieces of bone into the brain.

Social and Sexual Issues

• The frontal lobe governs social and sexual behavior. According to the Center for Neuroskills, as children with brain injury matured, they showed retarded social skills and exhibited inappropriate socio-sexual behaviors.