Contributions from: Sheila Bennett, Dawn Good & Tracey Burnet - Brock University.
Abstract
In Canada, there are no laws that guarantee students with acquired brain, injury (AbI) access to the special services that are essential to their academic success. In the United States of America there is a law that identifies the rights of students with ABI and yet the delivery of appropriate services and successful school reintegration remains problematic. The prevalence of school age individuals in Ontario who have sustained a brain injury and survived is approximately 27,000. Even so, there are no criteria within the Ontario educational system that acknowledge a category for brain injury. As a result, students with ABI, if they are identified at all as requiring assistance, are sometimes seen as developmentally delayed, unmotivated or as a behavioural problem - none of which allows for the delivery of appropriate services. In our research project (supported the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation) we are establishing an educational programme for teachers that will assist them in recognising the signs of ABI and understanding the significance of ABI to the learning processes of their students who are living with the effects of ABI. We have also surveyed teachers about their perspectives and current knowledge of special education and ABI.
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