Abstract
This paper reports on the treatment and process of recovery of a patient who sustained severe, traumatic brain injury at eleven years of age and was suffering from communication and behavioral disorders. MRI demonstrated extensive lesions in the bilateral frontal lobe. One year after the injury, the patient continued to show attention deficits, difficulty in initiating communication and movement, and simple and repetitive reactions to external stimulus in both behavior and conversation. The patient showed no signs of aphasia but tended toward rapid utterances, the repetition of words or parts of words as in stuttering, and perseveration in writing and drawing. The patient demonstrated fair to good improvement in behavior and communication but continued to show deficits three years after the accident. This case suggests the importance of carrying out treatment for a child with bilateral frontal lesions within a framework incorporating treatment for both behavior and communication disorders.
