Pediatric acquired brain injury resources for educators: a multi-year scan of Canadian-relevant internet resources

ABSTRACT

Background

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is the leading cause of death and disability in children, yet educators report a lack of knowledge about ABI and supporting students with ABI. With no formal learning about ABI, education professionals may turn to the internet for information.

Objectives

To find online resources about supporting students with ABI, in any format, available freely and publicly, aimed toward elementary educators and that could be applied in a Canadian context.

Methods

We performed an environmental scan using keyword Google searches, key websites, and expert recommendations. The search was performed twice: 2018 and 2021.

Results

96 resources were included after screening. The resources were published by organizations in the United States (n = 57), Canada (n = 19), United Kingdom (n = 16), Australia (n = 3) and New Zealand (n = 1). Traumatic brain injury and concussion were the most commonly addressed type of ABI, and Short Fact/Information sheets were the most common resource format. Between 2018 and 2021, 13 previously included resource links were no longer accessible.

Conclusions

This scan suggests that there are many online resources available to educators in a variety of formats, and that information online can be transient. Future studies should evaluate the accuracy and quality of the resources available.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental scan
• acquired brain injury
• educators
• traumatic brain injury
• students

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Centres for Leadership at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, the Ward Family (The Ward Family Summer Student Research Program), and supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We would like to acknowledge the efforts of the members of the NOvEL Lab Team (Bloorview Research Institute), specifically Brendan Lam for his support throughout the project. We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of the additional Teach-ABI team members, specifically Rhonda Martinussen, Boey Ho, Alicia Brown, and Sarah Nauman.

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Data sharing

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2022.2158230

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Holland Bloorview Centres for Leadership and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant number 430-2019-0714. Student researchers were supported by the Bloorview Research Institute (LS, SAM).