Describing the attention profile of children and adolescents with acquired brain injury using the Virtual Classroom

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of the study were: (1) to describe the attention deficits profile of children with significant acquired brain injury (ABI) in comparison to matched controls, using the virtual classroom (VC); (2) to assess the utility of the VC in detecting attention deficits in children with ABI, as compared to classical neuropsychological tests and questionnaire-based assessment of attention; and (3) to determine how performance in the VC is affected by demographic and injury severity variables.

Methods: Forty-one children with ABI and 35 age- and gender-matched controls, aged 8–16, were assessed with the VC. The results of the VC were compared to sub-tests of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch), the Conners' Parent Rating Scales-Revised: Short (CPRS-R:S) questionnaire and analysed according to demographic and injury severity variables.

Results: Significant differences were found between the groups regarding the number of targets correctly identified in the VC. Significant inter-correlations were obtained between the VC variables. Significant correlations were found between the VC variables, the sub-tests of TEA-Ch and the CPRS-R:S and the demographic characteristics of the sample.

Conclusion: The VC appears to be a sensitive and ecologically valid assessment tool for use in the diagnosis of attention deficits among children with ABI.

• Attention deficits
• brain tumour
• ecological assessment
• traumatic brain injury
• virtual reality

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Nathaly Quintero for her assistance in the recruitment of the control group at the Orthopedic Rehabilitation Department in Saint-Maurice hospitals. The authors also thank the whole rehabilitation team of the rehabilitation department for children with acquired brain injury for their implication in this study and of course the patients, controls and their families for their participation in the study. The results of this study were presented in part at the 65th Annual Conference of Israel Association of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Jerusalem in December 2014.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.