What is TBI?

What is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)? TBI refers to an injury to the brain that is caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability and/or psychosocial impairment that affect a child’s or student’s educational performance.  This includes both open and closed head injuries resulting in immediate or delayed impairments in areas such as cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem solving, sensory processing, perceptual and motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, speech and information processing. Oregon Administrative Rules 581-15-00

Causes of TBI’s can include; shaken baby syndrome, concussions, blunt force trauma to head, etc.    Brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative in nature, brain injuries induced by birth trauma, or related to disease or illness are not considered traumatic brain injuries.  They are acquired brain injuries, and may cause similar impairments. Examples include cerebral palsy, autism, meningitis, brain tumors, etc.