7B: Nicole's Response to Kelly Bujdos; TBI

Dear Kelly Bujdos,

            I really enjoyed reading your paper, power point, and discussion questions on traumatic brain injuries.  When I worked in Lexington, Kentucky at a speech clinic, I worked with many young adults that obtained their brain injury because of a car accident during their high school years.  When working there, I asked the workers what are some of the reasons that they have so many clients with traumatic brain injuries due to car accidents and their response was in Kentucky there is no law that requires individuals to wear helmets while operating a motorcycle.  I thought that this was very interesting that probably half of their clients did obtain their injury because of not wearing a helmet while operating a motorcycle.  I know you mentioned that transportation accidents are 50% of the top causes in the United States and that statistic does follow their client history too.

            Also while working with these individuals, many of the tasks that we worked on in therapy sessions involved activities that would help them to live on their own, work on organization skills, and interact with peers.  One of the top activities that we worked on was how to carry on a conversation and for the client to ask the questions and initiate the conversation.

            When looking over your power point and research paper, I really enjoyed how you mentioned different strategies for math, writing, and reading.  I think that it is important for teachers to understand that when an individual has a traumatic brain injury, not everyone is the same.  The individual needs to have their own educational plan and they can learn through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.  In addition to this, you mentioned lock-in memory strategies which are rehearsal, grouping, and association strategies.  I believe that this is important for these individuals because they often forget what they just learned and need to use some type of strategy to help them.  During our therapy sessions, we would have a planner that they would write in to list all of the activities that they worked on that day.  Before leaving the facility, the front desk would ask what they learned and if they could not remember they knew to take out their planner.   

            Overall, you did a really nice job.  Your paper was well-written and I enjoyed reading about the strategies that can be used by teacher to enhance the students learning.