Brain Injury Attorneys

Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, Manhattan, New York City, NY

Traumatic Brain Injury in Children

The potential for severe mental, physical, and emotional disability as a result of traumatic brain injury spans all ages. However, people are more likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury during the period between late childhood and young adulthood. While the young are more likely to survive a traumatic brain injury, this does not say they are less prone to severe handicaps. In fact, research suggests that children are more susceptible to brain damage as a result of traumatic brain injury than adults.

There is a widely-held, but false assumption that a child's brain is more resistant to damage, and more likely to adapt and rewire itself over the normal course of development. While this flexibility may apply to other parts of a child's body to some degree, it does not apply to the brain.

Childhood traumatic brain injury presents a number of unique challenges to parents, teachers, and medical professionals. Determining the extent of the injury is particularly difficult in a developing brain. As opposed to adult brain damage, there is little record of the intellectual and behavioral capacities of a child from which to do any before and after comparisons. Adults typically have academic records, aptitude test results, employment records, and other markers of previous abilities. This is not the case with most children.

Additionally, many effects of childhood traumatic brain injury may not become apparent for several years after the injury. The frontal lobes of the brain, for example, are among the last parts of the brain to develop. The frontal lobes also happen to be the control center for our social interactions and many other related behaviors. A child who suffers a frontal lobe injury at five or six years old may not show the full extent of the damage until his or her late teen years. Considering that a normal adolescence is rife with anxiety and other behavioral changes, it can be especially difficult to differentiate between what is normal and what is traumatic brain injury-related.

Childhood traumatic brain injury can put a heavy burden on parents, siblings, and other people directly involved with the raising of an afflicted child. If your child has suffered a traumatic brain injury, it is in your best interest to consult with an experienced traumatic brain injury lawyer right away. Please call or e-mail our brain injury attorneys today for a free consultation in the New York City and surrounding areas.

Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C.
Call Us Toll Free
1.877. ASK 4 SAM