Reading and Traumatic Brain Injury Across the Lifespan

Friday, November 11, 2022

1:00 PM – 2:15 PM

Presenter(s)

Katy H. O'Brien, PhD CCC-SLP

Assistant Professor
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia, United States

Slides
Yalian Pei (she/her/hers)

PhD student
University of Georgia, United States
LF

Lama K. Farran, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, Georgia, United States
Juliet Haarbauer-Krupa, Phd, FACRM

Senior Health Scientist
Division of Injury Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC
Marietta, Georgia, United States
Peter A. Meulenbroek, PhD, CCC-SLP

Assistant Professor
University of Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Kentucky, United States

Reading is a fundamental skill for academic and vocational success. However, in this series of studies examining reading after TBI across the lifespan, we found reading to be negatively affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI), including mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Reading difficulties impact children’s developmental trajectory, learning, and eventual vocational achievement. Regarding factors contributing to reading difficulties after TBI, we found that in children with pediatric TBI, pragmatic language, executive function, and recall skills were predictive of reading comprehension. In college students with chronic mTBI, reading self-efficacy was strongly associated with general reading ability, reading rate, and vocabulary. The ability for adults to read functional, work-related texts was related to cognitive effort, executive attention, and working memory capacity. This symposium also discusses the use of measures, including standardized tests, eye-tracking, and pupillometry, in identifying functional disruptions related to reading difficulties post TBI.

Learning Objectives:

Describe post-TBI reading outcomes and aspects of cognition essential for reading skills across life span.
Differentiate between latent profiles of children with TBI who may be at risk for reading comprehension difficulties and those of children who may not be at risk for reading comprehension difficulties.
Describe what variables eye-tracking and pupillometry provide and how they relate to cognitive skills associated with reading.