Preferred Name
Kaylor Duncan
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
5-2-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Educational Specialist (EdS)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
Advisor(s)
Ashton Trice
Deborah Kipps-Vaughan
Bernice Marcopulos
Abstract
Eight college students who experienced a traumatic brain injury were interviewed regarding their college transition experience. Students identified either parents, teachers, or school counselors as beneficial with helping them transition to college. The interest of the study was to obtain information to help school psychologists help students who have experienced a traumatic brain injury transition to college. Participants acknowledged that college level course work required them to be significantly more independent and the content of the material was more demanding than high school. Concerning neurological symptoms, it was indicated that participants experienced difficulty sustaining attention, utilizing their short-term memory, and possessing adequate time-management skills.
In the area of executive functioning challenges, students stated that after their injury they experienced a shortened attention span, especially while in a classroom setting. Additionally, the majority of students withdrew from socially stimulating situations and experienced challenges regulating their emotions. With regards to fatigue, the majority of participants reported that they experienced difficulty with sleeping and overall felt fatigued while recovering from their injury. Concerning accommodations, only two participants receive formal accommodations from the Office of Disability services at JMU.
Recommended Citation
Duncan, Kaylor, "Traumatic brain injury and the transition to college" (2019). Educational Specialist, 2009-2019. 156.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/edspec201019/156
