IMPROVING TRAINING METHODS IN BRAIN INJURY REHABILITATION

The effects of therapist training techniques upon treatment outcomes i n traumatic brain injury (TBI) has not been widely studied. This study demonstrates that outcome scores are likely to increase when therapis ts work on outcome-related activities and use identified training meth ods. Six therapists working with five persons with TBI were subjects f or this study. Therapists were targeted because their clients were not making progress on the functional independent measurement (FIM). Base line teaching data were collected from videotapes, targeting 14 traini ng elements within the areas of task, prompting, reinforcement, and cl ient's behavior. Therapists were given feedback based upon the teachin g diagnostic of the decision matrix. The results show that diagnostic- based intervention with therapists can result in direct, immediate, an d obvious improvements in outcome measures across patients.