The download version of Dr Johnson's Survival Guide is free to download. For those that can afford it, he asks for a small donation to help with the costs of maintaining his web site. Web sites are usually charged based on the amount of traffic to the web site. He does a wonderful service to the TBI and mTBI community.

A downloaded copy can be reformatted to make it easier to read for TBI subjects who may have vision/reading p[problems. For example, I struggle if there is too much information or clutter on a printed page. It that case, I will break up the page to make it easier to read without my brain becoming distracted by the clutter.

Has your daughter had a neuro-psych assessment? These can be a good way of helping the patient put their symptoms into real terms. They can also help the patient accept that they are not losing their mind but just living with a mind that does not always work correctly. Understanding and accepting our dysfunctions is the first step toward learning how to work-around or make accommodations for those dysfunctions.

My best to you and your daughter.

My daughter has had two neuropsychology exams, the first May after her accident and then this past May. We're having at least one more next May. I think maybe the next one will resinate more because the improvement won't be near what it was the first year. During her first exam, she couldn't talk, write, or even walk...all that has returned to some extent and her smell completely returned.

In Shelby's mind, she's getting better and this will be over some day. It doesn't really seem to matter what others say. I don't know, maybe she's right. It's that same stubborn determination that has brought her this far!

I am surprised they did a neuropsych exam if she was so disabled. It must have been much different than the one this past May. What did the last one say about her abilities?

The WAIS-II scores and the Wechsler Memory scores will be most indicative of her abilities for school and other life skills.

They can direct her in her effort to be normal. If she fights against the weak areas, she will just get stressed out.

Most of my WAIS-II scores are very high except my processing speed is very low. Most of my Wechsler scores are very low. I have developed many skills for dealing with this condition.

My best to you.

Hi Mark,


At the time of the first exam she was leaving Day rehab from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. It seemed that all the children that left that facility had an neuropsychology exam before they left. The two exams were definitely approached differently, but they measured the same things.


I don't understand how they measured some of these things on the first exam. For example, they provided a grade level for her reading ability both times. Perhaps this was required in the report for school. Her last exam put her at a 4th grade reading level, but as her teacher, I find that inaccurate. I would say she's easily at an 8th grade level because of her performance.


There's different WASI scores. Overall, the first exam had her below the 1st percentile across all the testing ranges. She fell within the 27th percentile a year later.


The full IQ was 78 the first exam and 105 the second exam. Prior to her accident her IQ was measured for the school's gifted program before middle school and high school, it was 129 when she was 10 and 145 when she was 14.


For her verbal skills, the Boston Naming test was in the 32th percentile and her D-KEFS verbal fluency test was in the 9th percentile. D-KEFS shows her ability to generate the right word. Her delayed recall was well below average. The report mentions she still has aphasia and dysphasia...these are the medical terms used for her speech difficulties.


For her nonverbal skills, all the tests were either less than 1 or at 1 percentile.


For Attention & Executive function, (WASI-IV Working memory index), was in the 4th percentile.


For Fine motor functioning, (WASI-IV Procesing Speed) was in the 2nd percentile.


Processing and memory are significant deficits for her.


Take care,
Angel

Duhhhh, It just dawned on me that she would not be administered the WAIS-II. It is for adults. (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale)

I struggle with aphasia, mostly in word finding. I sometimes struggle with comprehension, especially if the speaker has an accent. My brain can either decode the accent or decode the sentence, but not both. One of my work-arounds for word finding is to look around the room. The visual images sometimes trigger my brain into the right word pathway. Otherwise, I often get stuck and can become sort of obsessive in trying to find the word.

You mentioned that you are her teacher. Do you work at her school or do you homeschool her?

I have had to stop a lot of recreational reading. I cannot read fiction. I cannot keep the characters and story line in memory.

I love to read factual information. It is the only reading that I am successful at. I can put the facts together like a jigsaw puzzle. This linear like use of the information allows me to keep the facts in an indexable memory. I may need to read something many times for later recall but at least i can process the reading the first time through.

I read gobs about how the brain works and the latest discoveries, etc.

As I have looked back at my academic life, I have realized that I lost a lot of my verbal skills after my injury at 10 years old. I was never able to score very high on the verbal SAT. My vocabulary recall is problematic. I always did fabulous on the Math portion. In fact, I increased my score from 650 a year after my sophomore year concussion induced struggles to 710 another year later, even though I had not had a math course since my sophomore year.

My friend appears to have trouble with verbal processing. His brain likes to twist words into strange meanings. His visual skills are much better than mine. He is fast as a bullet with backgammon. His math skills are also very strong.

I use my computer to organize my thoughts because I get lost trying to organize them to speak audibly. One of my friends in brain injury support group has severe aphasia but is unapologetic in her attempts to communicate. I sometimes refer back to the old excuse that " I get my merds wixed up." Or, "My tongue got caught around my eye tooth and I couldn't see what I was saying. " This recitations tend to help me get my brain back on track.

It helps to develop a sense of humor about or foibles. If you smile after mixing up your words, others will laugh with you rather than at you. It also helps to tell those close to you about your struggles. Then they can be much more supportive. When others understand, they are not left feeling awkward and embarrassed.

My IQ was measured at 128 to 140+ post injury. I know that it was much better prior to my last concussion. Much of my difficulties are due to a very low digit span. Sometimes, it is only 3 or even 2. On my best days now, it can be as high as 12 or 13. Before, it was probably up near 18 or better. I had a photographic memory. Now, I am either out of film or low on available Flash RAM.

Yet, I am highly functional as are many of my severely injured TBI friends. The next year will likely have as much or more improvement than the last year. As she learns to work with the new brain she has, she will likely find new ways to do the things that she wants to do. Many TBI or mTBi subjects develop a completely new sense of compassion and awareness of the needs of others.

I can see when someone is struggling mentally just by the look in their eyes. Been there, done that, know what it is like from the inside looking out.

As her teacher, I encourage you to throw out the calendar. It only adds undue stress. Then, the accomplishments will appear to pop up out of nowhere. Being anxious for the future tends to dull the value of the future accomplishments. Don't worry about whether her glass is half empty of half full. Choose to use a smaller glass until she can handle a larger glass. It will come in time.

btw, I have a cousin who is a year older than me which would make her 56. She was severely brain damaged from a delayed birth. The doctors said she would never be able to take care of herself. She has been running her group home for the past 20 years. She may have some academic struggles but she also has abilities that outshine the 'normal people.' She has been very productive with her life even though at 15 years old, the specialists said her IQ was equal to a 3 or 4 year old.

Your daughter will accomplish much, just be patient.

My best to you.

I do home school her so we can do it at her own pace. We only do one course at a time. This may change later, but it seems to work well for her right now. We've been very fortunate to find an accredited online homeschool program that works with us.


I'm glad to hear about others successes and hope she makes it to that point. At the moment, I'm just happy to get through the day.

Angel,

I just read up on the Georgia homeschool regulations. Georgia is a good place to homeschool compared to many other states. I am not sure what the value of finding an accredited homeschool program is. My three children all finished through high school in our homeschool.

My middle daughter is a Staff Sargent in the full time Army National Guard and became a homeowner at the young age of 23. Her private school teachers considered her learning disabled so we brought her and her siblings home during 2nd, 4th and 5th grade. She ended up graduating by California's high early graduation standards when she was only 16.

Your ability to customize the course work and learning environment will provide your daughter all of the opportunities she needs to succeed. Keep in mind that what she needs most is to learn how to learn. The information taught in school is not as important. As she discovers how her own brain intakes and processes information, she will equip herself for what ever she wants to pursue in the future.

For example, when my daughter was AIT (Advanced Individual Training) to become a surgical technician, she knew she needed to sit at the front of the class. This way she has less distractions within her range of view. She also has less auditory distractions. Distractions were a big issue for her. We found that we needed to cover illustrations in text books or find texts without illustrations because they would cause her to be distracted.

A good system for spelling and other written skills is to use a computer. This way, they develop muscle memory skills as they learn to spell. It also provided an opportunity for 'mom' to not be the bad guy when grading a spelling quiz. They would type out the words on the computer with spell check set to underline in red squigglies.

Before they hit the space bar, they would review the spelling of the word. If they thought they spelled the word correctly, they hit 'space.' Bingo, either red squigglies for a misspelling or no squigglies for a correct spelling. If the word was misspelled, they would try again. Once they got it right, they would type the word correctly 7 times or more to over-ride the memory of the misspelling.

A rule of thumb is this. It only takes three or less repetitions to create a bad habit. It takes seven or more correct actions to overcome the bad habit.

So, Angel, you go for it and don't worry. She will do fine.

I could give you gobs of statistics about how well homeschool students fare in the real world. If you have any homeschool questions, feel free to ask. My wife is the true expert. She dealt with 2 females as they matured and cycled through the hormones of teen girls. No matter how inadequate you may feel 'some' days, you will still be doing a great job with your daughter.

My best to you two.