[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/05\/tbi-speech-therapy-kids\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/05\/tbi-speech-therapy-kids\/","headline":"How Speech Therapy Can Help Children After a Traumatic Brain Injury","name":"How Speech Therapy Can Help Children After a Traumatic Brain Injury","description":"

Working with a speech language pathologist can help children regain communication, memory, and other skills after a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>","datePublished":"2025-05-05","dateModified":"2025-08-06","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/pediatrics","name":"Pediatrics","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/pediatrics","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/pediatrics\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-1463943197-e1746543326187.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-1463943197-e1746543326187.jpg","height":866,"width":2000},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/05\/tbi-speech-therapy-kids\/","about":["Living and Wellness","Neurosurgery and Brain Health","Pediatrics"],"wordCount":1540,"articleBody":"If your child suffers a traumatic brain injury (TBI), speech therapy can play an important role in their recovery.Working with a speech-language pathologist (SLP) can help children improve their speech, express their thoughts more clearly, address cognitive issues, and more. The work often begins in the acute inpatient unit and continues through inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient rehab.\u201cIt is really nice to be able to see their progress from inpatient acute care to inpatient rehab to outpatient,\u201d says Linda Torres, CCC-SLP\/L, senior speech-language pathologist, UPMC Children\u2019s Hospital of Pittsburgh-South Fayette.Learn more about traumatic brain injuries in children and how speech therapy can help.What Are Traumatic Brain Injuries?Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) occur when there’s a jolt, blow, or penetrating injury to the head that affects normal brain function.TBIs are mild, moderate, or severe. They’re a common cause of injury-related deaths in children. Concussions are a type of TBI.More than 600,000 children visit emergency departments for TBIs each year. That’s according to the Brain Injury Association of America. Children ages 0 to 4 and 15 to 19 are most at risk of TBIs.The most common causes of TBIs in children include:Accidental blunt trauma to the head.Falls.Motor vehicle accidents.Physical abuse, including shaken baby syndrome.Speech Problems After Traumatic Brain InjuryA TBI can cause many different symptoms in children. This includes problems with cognition, speech, and communication. They may suffer from one or more speech disorders, including:Acquired apraxia of speech \u2014 This occurs when damage to the brain affects the pathways for communication. Your brain knows what it wants to say but can’t communicate it to the muscles responsible for speaking. You may struggle to pronounce words correctly, pronounce words inconsistently, or have trouble with speech rhythm or inflection.Aphasia \u2014 Aphasia occurs when brain damage affects the ability to communicate or understand others’ communication. You may have trouble finding the right word, say the wrong word by mistake, or repeat yourself often. You also may have trouble reading, writing, or understanding what others are saying.Dysarthria \u2014 Dysarthria occurs when brain damage affects the muscles used to produce speech. A person with dysarthria may struggle to speak or have slurred speech.Other cognition and communication problems that can occur after a TBI include:Attention or concentration issues.Breathing problems.Memory problems.Nonverbal communication problems.Slowed processing speed.Social communication lapses.Swallowing difficulties.Traumatic Brain Injury and Speech TherapySpeech-language pathologists (SLPs) can help children overcome a wide range of complications after a TBI. Depending on the severity of the TBI and their symptoms, SLPs can help children:Express their thoughts more effectively.Improve the clarity of their speech.Improve their memory.Improve problem-solving, planning, and organization skills.Improve their reading comprehension.Improve social skills, such as reading social cues and taking turns in conversation.Learn how to swallow safely.Pay attention better.\u201cI think when people think of speech therapy, they think of, \u2018My child can’t say their Rs, Ls, and S\u2019s,\u2019 as an example,\u201d Linda says. \u201cBut there\u2019s a lot more because we do the augmentative communication. If they have trouble communicating, we can use different applications to help them to communicate.\u201dHow Speech-Language Pathologists Help Kids After TBISLPs play key roles in children’s recovery after TBI. Speech therapy work typically begins in the inpatient setting and then transitions to inpatient rehabilitation, followed by outpatient.Inpatient acute careSpeech-language pathologists typically begin working with TBI patients after they get medical clearance.\u201cWe’re involved pretty quickly as long as they’re medically ready to be interacted with,\u201d says Colleen Lyons, CCC-SLP, lead speech-language pathologist, UPMC Children’s.The specific speech therapy exercises depend on factors like the severity of TBI and the child’s specific symptoms. For someone who has a concussion or mild TBI, the work might involve exercises to improve information processing or memory. The speech therapy team at UPMC Children’s is part of the concussion protocol and will see concussion patients before discharge.For more severe TBIs, speech therapy exercises could involve working to strengthen swallowing, regain speech, improve cognition, and more.\u201cAs the severity level increases, basically as soon as the child is starting to interact with their environment, we\u2019ll start evaluations to see how much change is happening from this week to that week,\u201d Colleen says. \u201cWe’ll work as a multidisciplinary team with occupational and physical therapy to help make sense of what information processing is happening through little things, like response to touch, response to light, response to smells, response to sound.\u201cAnd we’re just getting in there and talking to the family as early as possible about what kinds of things we can be doing in the environment to help have a positive impact on change.\u201dInpatient rehabilitationWhen a child is ready for more targeted work, they’ll often begin inpatient rehabilitation.\u201cAs these kids are kind of waking up and becoming more alert to their environment, typically their care team wants to get them to a rehab floor or a floor where they can participate a little bit more than just the ICU,\u201d says Jared Schuerman, CCC-SLP, speech-language pathologist, Rehabilitation Unit, UPMC Children\u2019s.\u201cOftentimes, the more severe cases, we’ll see them as they start to transition to being able to participate a little bit more day in and day out.\u201dThe specific exercises depend on the severity of the TBI and the child’s symptoms. Jared says they often will begin to work on specific, targeted areas for improvement. That can include processing speeds, memory impairments, logic and reasoning, fine language skills, and more.\u201cWe’re working day in and day out with occupational therapy, physical therapy, and caregivers in anticipation of how independent we can have these children leaving the hospital,\u201d Jared says. \u201cAnd it kind of takes that whole team.\u201dHow long a child stays in inpatient rehab depends on the severity of their situation. It’s as short as a week for mild cases and as long as two to three months for severe cases, Jared says.Outpatient rehabSome children get a referral to continue their rehabilitation on an outpatient basis after they get discharged from inpatient rehab. Others may get a referral later if problems emerge at home or school.In outpatient rehab, SLPs will continue to work with children on their specific targeted areas of improvement from inpatient rehab.\u201cWe work a lot with the families, and we continue the education that inpatient and inpatient rehab has started with the parents,\u201d Linda says. \u201cWe try to help educate and transition them back into school for school-age children.\u201cFor the older kids that are in high school, we can home in a lot on their difficulties and get their input, too.\u00a0 Then, we can look into what difficulties they’re having at school and help them work through those. If they’re not in school, we still work on those goals for the cognitive-linguistic skills that they need.\u201cIf there are some social issues going on, if it’s appropriate, we can put them into a group to work on their social skills as well. So, it’s a nice continuum of care from the acute inpatient to acute inpatient rehab to outpatient.\u201dCan Children Regain Speech After a TBI?Speech therapy can help children regain most \u2014 if not all \u2014 of their prior communication abilities.\u201cOne of the lovely things about working with children is how they have neuroplasticity,\u201d Colleen says. \u201cSince children are supposed to be learning and developing new skills all the time, the brain is a lot more flexible in the ways that it can learn to do things.\u201cWe do see some astounding progress. Especially once you get some momentum, it can be really neat to see how much things will roll along.\u201dOften, the key to success is strong communication between speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and a child’s caregivers.It’s also important that the therapy is adaptable. What may work for a 4-year-old patient will not necessarily work for a 16-year-old patient, Jared says.\u201cIt keeps you on your toes, in that sense,\u201d he says. \u201cBut also, it takes understanding that they have gone through something very difficult, and their family\u2019s gone through something difficult. That adaptability piece comes into play each and every day, which makes it fun.\u201dColleen, Jared, and Linda say the most rewarding part of their jobs is seeing children’s personalities emerge as they make progress.\u201cYou can just see this light come up of hope,\u201d Colleen says. \u201cJust watching that happen is rewarding. Because we spend so much of our day trying to make kids shine and trying to find their personalities and what motivates them. It’s really nice to see those moments.\u201dSourcesAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Aphasia. Link American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Dysarthria. LinkAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury. LinkCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. TBI Data. LinkEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in Kids: Causes and Prevention Strategies. LinkNational Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Aphasia. LinkNational Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Apraxia of Speech. Link"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2025","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"05","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/\/05\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How Speech Therapy Can Help Children After a Traumatic Brain Injury","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/05\/tbi-speech-therapy-kids\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]