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Traumatic Frontal Lobe Brain Injuries in Children

People used to believe children were better off than adults when dealing with a traumatic brain injury. However, according to braininjury.com, there is evidence that proves the opposite. Brain injuries can be more detrimental to children than to adults.

  1. Causes

    • Children undergo brain injuries due to car and bicycle accidents, sports, falls and child abuse. It is more difficult to determine the amount of brain loss in children due to injuries because adults have previous records of intelligence to compare pre- and post-injury.

    Considerations

    • Per braininjury.com, children's skulls are only one-eighth as strong as adults. A head injury can easily cause more brain damage to a child than to a fully developed adult.

    Misconceptions

    • Many functions of the frontal lobe do not develop until later on. Therefore, it may be hard to identify any type of disorder brought on by head trauma until these skills fail to show up.

    Expert Insight

    • A 2006 study led by Jeffrey E. Max, MBBCh, revealed personality changes in children 6 to 24 months after severe head injuries.

    Significance

    • From Max's study, 13 percent of the children ages 5 to 14 had personality changes 6 to 12 months after injury, and 12 percent developed personality changes in the second year.

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