Awake brain surgery (awake craniotomy) is a highly specialized procedure sometimes completed when a tumor or medically compromised area of the brain is located near or in a functionally critical area. Numerous disciplines are involved with the goal to preserve functioning in the patient. SLPs play an important role before, during, and after surgery.

Following a brain injury, children often recover many previously acquired skills with both time and therapy. It is often more difficult for children to regain the developmental skills they were working on acquiring at the time of injury and, as a result, later developing skills which build upon these may be more challenging to acquire. These difficulties may not be noted until later in their development as they "grow into" their areas of deficit when demands within their environment increase.

A speech-language pathologist’s (SLP) role in seeing a patient following a brain injury can vary significantly depending on the needs of the patient. The SLP scope of practice includes speech, language, cognitive communication, voice, fluency, feeding/swallowing, social communication, and augmentative and alternative communication and depending on the injury, one or many of these areas may be addressed.

When an adult has a brain injury, the goal of therapy is to help them regain the skills they had developed before. When a child has a brain injury, the goal is to help them regain those skills... and acquire the next set of skills... and the next... and the next... and the next...

What is an acquired brain injury (ABI)? What causes an ABI? What areas are impacted?