Abstract
Objectives: The objectives of the study were: (1) to describe the attention deficits profile of children with significant acquired brain injury (ABI) in comparison to matched controls, using the virtual classroom (VC); (2) to assess the utility of the VC in detecting attention deficits in children with ABI, as compared to classical neuropsychological tests and questionnaire-based assessment of attention; and (3) to determine how performance in the VC is affected by demographic and injury severity variables.Methods: Forty-one children with ABI and 35 age- and gender-matched controls, aged 8-16, were assessed with the VC. The results of the VC were compared to sub-tests of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch), the Conners' Parent Rating Scales-Revised: Short (CPRS-R:S) questionnaire and analysed according to demographic and injury severity variables.Results: Significant differences were found between the groups regarding the number of targets correctly identified in the VC. Significant inter-correlations were obtained between the VC variables. Significant correlations were found between the VC variables, the sub-tests of TEA-Ch and the CPRS-R:S and the demographic characteristics of the sample.Conclusion: The VC appears to be a sensitive and ecologically valid assessment tool for use in the diagnosis of attention deficits among children with ABI.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1691-1700 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Brain Injury |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 13-14 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 6 Dec 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Keywords
- Attention deficits
- brain tumour
- ecological assessment
- traumatic brain injury
- virtual reality