Traumatic Brain Injury and Activities of Daily Living

Welcome back to Second Chance to Live my friend. I am happy you decided to stop by and visit with me. Thank you. Following a brain injury individuals may experience changes in their personality and in their ability to learn. Consequently, both the traumatic brain injury survivor as well as their family and friends may experience an unfamiliar frustration. Frustration may be compounded because the brain-injured person may look “normal” i.e. as though nothing has happened to them. Recently I heard someone say, “She was in a car accident several months ago, but she is fine. She just had a head injury.”

People who have experienced brain-injuries may have changes in their ability to learn, remember and grasp new tasks or remember old ones. Activities of daily living may subsequently become laborious and even daunting for the individual impacted by a brain-injury. Once simple tasks take huge amounts of effort and energy. Executing and practicing once familiar tasks become a struggle. The individual may consequently experience increasing anxiety and fatigue.

Through my experience I have found that there are different learning styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Some people learn best through a combination of these three learning styles, while others learn predominantly through the use of one or two of these styles. Through testing, I discovered that I learn best through two of the three styles. When auditory (listening to instructions) and kinesthetic (show me and let me do) are combined my learning aptitude increases and I am better able to learn the new material.

My learning disability, created by my brain injury necessitates that I learn through repetition and persistence. I have also discovered that my ability to learn tasks is hampered when sequences of information are presented to me. I am unable to remember those sequences even though they are given to me auditorily. My learning as a result comes at a slower pace. Because I have difficulty learning new sequences of information, I need to have a list of the steps in the sequence to follow while I learn the task. I also need to have more time to process new information. Through my ongoing process as a traumatic brain injury survivor I have developed other strategies to enhance my learning process.

Your learning style may have changed following your brain injury my friend. Consequently, the manner in which you learn may have changed; resulting in you being frustrated with life.

My encouragement to you my friend would be to discover how you best learn. Are you a visual learner, an auditory learner or a kinesthetic learner? In the event that you have experienced a traumatic brain injury, your learning style may have changed for you. As a result, you may be attempting to learn in ways that no longer work for you. Consequently you may need to ask your counselor or caseworker to test your learning style so that you can maximize your rehabilitation process. Once you have explored and discovered how you now learn best, you can develop strategies to enhance your recovery process.

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