Language development following brain injury in early childhood: a longitudinal case study

The present longitudinal case study was designed to investigate the possibi lity that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurring during the second year o f life, while significant lexical and grammatical competencies are emerging , could have an impact on subsequent language development. Thus, the langua ge development of a very young girl (BL) who suffered a TBI at the age of 1 7 months was monitored for 6 months following the injury. Different procedu res were used to measure her lexical and grammatical development: monthly p arental checklists, fret-play sessions and word-learning tasks. BL's result s were compared with two control groups (n = 5 and 9) matched for age and g ender. Overall, the results are consistent with the classical view of acqui red language disorders in children: despite an initial decrease in the use of her premorbid vocabulary, BL showed no durable significant impairment on any measure of lexical or grammatical development.