Planning, problem-solving and organizational abilities in children following traumatic brain injury: intervention techniques.

Due to the mechanisms involved in traumatic brain injury (TBI), the frontal lobes are often impacted. As the frontal regions of the brain are believed to subsume executive functioning, then it follows that post-TBI deficits may be seen in this domain. Executive functioning broadly refers to a set of inter-related skills necessary to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for the attainment of a future goal and may include areas such as attentional control, planning, problem-solving, cognitive flexibility, abstraction and information processing. The literature available on interventions for executive difficulties following TBI is minimal, with that focused on the paediatric population even more limited. From the few evaluation studies available, results tend to suggest that specific types of intervention lead to positive outcomes. However, as the interventions are few and often based on case studies, there is much need for more evaluation studies to be conducted.