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TOOL NAME
Pediatric Test of Brain Injury
USED TO EVALUATE
PTBI assesses the neurocognitive, language, and literacy abilities of children ages 6–16 recovering from brain injury
AGE RANGE
Children ages 6–16
COMPLETED BY
Speech-language pathologists or other clinicians
TIME COMMITMENT
PTBI is easy to complete in just 30 minutes, so it won’t overburden children likely to be fatigued or have attention issues
ABOUT
Designed for use with children ages 6–16 recovering from brain injury, the Pediatric Test of Brain Injury™ (PTBI™) is the only criterion-referenced, standardized test that assesses the skills children need to return to school and function in the general education curriculum. PTBI is rigorously tested using cutting-edge item response theory (IRT) analysis, traditional test development methods, and field testing at trauma and rehab centers and clinics.
Description
Designed for use with children ages 6–16 recovering from brain injury, PTBI™ is the only criterion-referenced, standardized test that assesses the skills children need to return to school and function in the general education curriculum. An effective and innovative tool, PTBI helps speech-language pathologists and other clinicians determine children's curriculum-relevant neurocognitive, language, and literacy abilities so they can identify strengths and weaknesses and implement effective interventions. PTBI is also an essential tool for monitoring functional changes, tracking recovery patterns over time, and guiding decision-making related to school reintegration.
Equally useful for assessing children with acquired or traumatic brain injury, PTBI is
- rigorously tested using cutting-edge item response theory (IRT) analysis and traditional test development methods, yielding strong evidence of reliability and validity
- focused on areas critical to school success, such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, gesturing, working memory, and problem solving
- easy to complete in just 30 minutes—won't overburden children likely to be fatigued or have attention issues
- field tested at trauma, rehab centers, and clinics across the country
- useful anytime during the recovery process—to assess abilities in the acute phases and to monitor progress on an ongoing basis
- easy to administer and score—the forms include concise, specific instructions for accurate use of PTBI
The complete PTBI includes all the components necessary for successful test administration: an Examiner's Manual with comprehensive guidelines and technical data; a Stimulus Book with all the visual stimuli needed to conduct the test; and Test Forms for recording information about the child's performance and scoring PTBI.
The first and only standardized test that assesses cognitive and academic skills after brain injury, PTBI is the tool every SLP needs to develop effective supports for children and get them ready for a successful return to the classroom.
Assess critical skill sets with the ten PTBI subtests:
- Orientation tasks: such as naming the current place, date, and year
- Following commands: assesses skills such as attention, verbal memory, and listening comprehension
- Word fluency: assesses executive skills for self-guided word search and memory
- What goes together: tests semantic/conceptual knowledge, vocabulary, verbal expression and flexibility
- Digit span: sequence recall of two to seven numbers requires immediate memory, auditory attention and speech output
- Naming:uses word retrieval, visual perception and recognition, vocabulary, and spoken language output as children are shown a drawing and asked to name items
- Story retelling—immediate: assesses comprehension and recall of a narrative
- Yes/no/maybe: questions about a story read aloud measure language comprehension with complex syntax
- Picture recall and signature: calls on delayed retrospective memory, visuospatial and graphomotor skills
- Story retelling—delayed: measures recall of earlier task story for understanding of auditory verbal information organized as meaningful narrative
All PTBI Products
Reviews
Review: Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
". . . strongly recommend PTBI as an assessment tool for children with TBI for speech-language pathologists as well as for other professionals involved with this population in acute care, outpatient, and academic settings."
Review: Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology
"The PTBI is an effective tool for measuring change in cognitive communication ability for pediatric TBI and ABI population. The authors have designed a test with the purpose of establishing current cognitive communication ability levels and to track changes over time. In this they have succeeded. . . . The PTBI would be most effective showing cognitive communication change following a brain injury for the child in an acute hospital or acute rehabilitation setting."
Review by: Mary Warburton, Lead Speech-Language Pathologist, St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, MO
"PTBI is a gift! We finally have a comprehensive and easy to administer tool with which to obtain information . . . PTBI will be our "go-to" test for pediatric brain injury from now on."
Review by: Roberta DePompei, School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, The University of Akron, Ohio
"A classic, must have assessment tool for clinicians working in a variety of settings . . . provide[s] valued direction for intervention over the developmental years."
Review by: Jennifer Lundine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
"A brief but highly functional assessment for children following brain injury -- something that has been needed in the field of pediatric rehabilitation for years."
Review by: Leah MacMillan, Pediatric Speech Pathologist, UNC Hospitals, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
"An efficient and easy to administer test . . . provid[es] direction for further assessment and monitoring of a child's performance, thereby affecting the child's overall success."
Review by: Julie Haarbauer-Krupa, Speech Pathologist and ABI Researcher, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia
"Finally, we have a test for children and teens based on a strong cognitive-linguistic developmental framework with scientifically valid items designed to systematically evaluate skills vulnerable to brain injury."
Review by: Sandra Bond Chapman, Chief Director, Center for BrainHealth; Dee Wyly Distinguished Professor, The University of Texas at Dallas
"Significantly advances clinical practice . . . The PTBI is distinctive from all other single measures in that it is an efficient, informative, easy to administer, and a comprehensive screening tool."
Review by: Shirley V. Leew, Lead, Decision Support Research Team, Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinical Research Scientist, Alberta Health Services; Adjunct Professor, Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta
"A long-awaited and necessary cognitive-linguistic assessment tool for children with brain injury . . . provides a reliable basis for individualized treatment plans, targeting necessary skills for important language development and learning outcomes."
Review by: Patrick B. Donohue, Founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation and Father of Sarah Jane Donohue
"This test is long overdue. It is critical that a specific test like the PTBI is now available to track the neurocognitive recovery of these children following brain injury."