1. 70-90% of brain injuries are classified as MILD. A concussion IS a mild brain injury. Despite being classified as mild it affects day to day functioning and communications across a variety of settings.

• Aribabi et al 2020, MacDonald 2017

2. Cognitive communication deficits have been shown to affect return to work. Deficits include memory, executive functions, reasoning, attention, speed of processing, cognitive fatigue, verbal expression/discourse, and understanding of spoken and written information.

• Dahm & Ponsford 2015, Drake 2000, Douglas et al 2016, Isaki and Turkstra 2000, LeBlanc et al 2014,  MacDonald & Johnson 20005, Mani et al 2017, Muelenbroek & Turkstra  2016, Struchen et al 2008

3. 12-33% have NOT returned to work one year post mild brain injury. 

 30-40% return to work BUT work is modified. 

 ONLY 40% return to work following a moderate-severe brain injury.

• Bloom et al 2017, Cuthbert et al 2015,  De Koening et al 2017, Doctor et al 2005, Hanlon 1999, Malec 2005, Ruffolo et al 1999

4. Communication and social skills identified as 2 of the most important skills in the workplace, with most employees spending the majority of their work day listening, reading, writing, speaking. All of which is communication!

• Adler et al 2001, Klemmer & Snyder 2006, Robles 2012

5. 46% of students report high levels of academic problems due to difficulties understanding material, note taking, new learning, reading and retaining, with test and writing assignments taking longer to complete.  Compared to orthopedic injuries students with mTBI take longer to return to school and require more accommodations.

• Brown et al., 2019; Norman et al., 2019; Ransom et al., 2016

6. Greater than 50% of individuals of with post concussion have difficulties in conversation & social relationships.

• Crewe-Brown et al., 2011, Le Blanc et al., 2014, MacDonald 2017, Nelson et al., 2019; Parrish 2009, Sveen et al., 2013

7. Cognitive communication deficits affect family communications. Impact includes decreased meaningful engagement, increased reliance on others for decision making, decreased empathy, difficulty communicating roles as a parent, spouse, or sibling (advice, problem solving, discipline, etc).  Families report less satisfactory and more frustrating communications.

• Crewe-Brown et al., 2011, Douglas et al 2014, Knox,  Macdonald 2017, Parrish 2009

8. Cognitive communication deficits affect successful reintegration into the community resulting in social isolation, reduced quality of life and reduced independence in community interactions due to deficits combined with environmental demands/complexity.

• Dahlberg et al 2006, Togher 2004,  Tran et al 2018

9. Despite the claims, brain training games does NOT result in real life cognitive or communication improvements! Sure, you may get better at the game but results have not been shown to generalize to day to day tasks and communications. 

• Cicerone et al 2014, CornisPop et al 2012, In Cog 2.0 Guidelines, Owen et al 2010, Politis et al 2016, Simons et al 2016, Stojanoski et al 2021

10. It is crucial for assessments to be comprehensive, sufficiently complex, multifactorial and conducted under time constraints to accurately capture the subtle but debilitating cognitive communication deficits that present during real life communications/tasks across a variety of settings. Effective treatment must be individualized, based on principles of neuroplasticity and evidence based to improve functional communications and strengthen client cases. All of this is expertly provided by Allcare Rehab Solutions.

• Cornis-Pop et al 2012, Hardin et al 2021, In Cog Guidelines, Jeffay et al 2023,  Levine et al 2000,  MacDonald 2017, O’Neill-Pirozzi et al 2016, Norman et al 2019, Parrish et al 2009, Vas et al 2015