Predictors of longitudinal outcome and recovery of pragmatic language and its relation to externalizing behaviour after pediatric traumatic brain injury

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate the contribution of age-at-insult and brain pathology on longitudinal outcome and recovery of pragmatic language in a sample of children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Children and adolescents with mild to severe TBI (n= 112) were categorized according to timing of brain insult: (i) Middle Childhood (5-9 years; n= 41); (ii) Late Childhood (10-11 years; n=. 39); and (iii) Adolescence (12-15 years; n= 32) and group-matched for age, gender and socio-economic status (SES) to a typically developing (TD) control group (n= 43). Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including a susceptibility weighted imag..