What is Acquired Brain Injury?

Acquired brain injury (ABI) is an injury to the brain after birth and the immediate newborn period. These can be caused by accidents or assaults ('head injuries' incurred through, for example, sporting accidents, road traffic incidents and falls) or by illness (e.g. brain tumours, meningitis, encephalitis and hydrocephalus).

It is the leading cause of death and disability in children in the UK. Approximately 1 in every 500 children under 15 years of age sustains such a brain injury each year and the majority survive, with effects often lasting many years and long into adulthood. The total percentage of the childhood population that is affected is therefore much higher than this. It has often been referred to as a silent epidemic.

Acquired brain injury often causes interacting and complex difficulties which may affect cognition and behavioural, social, emotional and language skills. Although there can also be physical or sensory disabilities, these are frequently less significant. Young people with ABI often look as they did previously, with no visible sign of injury. ABI is frequently referred to as an invisible disability.

It is also an evolving disability as the injury has occurred to a developing brain (neurological and cognitive development is particularly significant throughout the first two decades of life), so the extent and nature of the disability may not be apparent until many years after the initial injury. This is termed the sleeper effect.

The effects of the injury can often be mistakenly identified by a young person's school as symptoms of disaffection and truculence, leading them to be labelled as underperforming and 'difficult'. This can lead to a sense of failure, lack of achievement and subsequent difficulties in progressing into further or higher education or into employment.