Linguistic competence in paediatric closed head injury.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of age at onset of traumatic brain injury on the linguistic competence of children and adolescents who sustained closed head injuries (CHI) that cause diffuse brain damage. The Test of Language Competence-Expanded Edition (TLC-E), a standardized test of subtle language abilities, was administered to 20 children who sustained severe CHI. The study determined whether 10 subjects who experienced CHI at a pre-adolescent age (4 to 11 years) and 10 subjects who experienced CHI at an adolescent age (13 to 18 years) showed quantitative differences in linguistic competence as measured by the TLC-E Test. The language abilities of children in both groups were compared to determine whether there were trends in performance relative to age of onset or type of subtest. In addition, experimental subjects' performance was compared to the normative population used to standardize the TLC-E. Hypotheses were constructed according to separate developmental and pathophysiological perspectives.