Adversarial Growth: Positive Outcomes of Traumatic Brain Injury in Children

When a child experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI), there are many immediate health concerns that must be addressed. From neurological complication to complications involving general growth and development, any child that experiences a blunt trauma to the head should be evaluated by a pediatrician.

If your child experienced a blunt trauma to the head, and has been diagnosed with TBI due to associated residual health complications, it is important to become familiar with a unique complication that involves abnormal psychological complications and irregular mental growth patterns. While you may be inclined to focus on the neurological complications, often because they are most apparent, the under workings of a TBI can also lead to a complication involving psychological growth and development in children.

Interesting enough, not all psychological changes in children with TBI are negative. While we may tend to fear a child will develop anxiety, depression, impaired emotion, impaired cognitive function and even complications involving personality development, there are many children who actually experience positive outcomes. While many of these positive outcomes may have been expected with normal growth and development, in children with traumatic brain injury they can be exacerbated.

The term you may hear from your child's rehabilitation team, and often used among health care professionals, is known as "adversarial growth". Simply put, "adversarial growth" implies a positive change in behavior or lifestyle following an adversarial event. It is the term used to describe the experience of a highly complicated and poor life experience that results in, ultimately, a positive outcome. In children with traumatic brain injury (TBI), adversarial growth is becoming increasingly more recognized.