“The Lobe Family”: Collaborative Development of a Psychoeducational Resource for Children who have Experienced an Acquired Brain Injury

Background: This thesis describes the collaborative development and preliminary evaluation of a new psychoeducational resource for children and young people (CYP) who have experienced an acquired brain injury (ABI). Despite being acknowledged as a key aspect of neurorehabilitation associated with improved outcomes, the informational needs of CYP and their families are often not met (Danzi, Etter, Andretta & Kitzman, 2012; Forsyth et al., 2017). Whilst a number of informational resources are currently available, these are primarily developed for younger audiences, or those with milder forms of ABI that do not result in enduring neurocognitive impairment such as for concussion. A new psychoeducational resource may have the potential to meet these needs, particularly if grounded in theoretical and therapeutic research and theory, and delivered in a developmentally and pedagogically coherent manner.
Methods: Researcher generated ideas derived from a review of the literature were integrated with the views of three CYP who have experienced an ABI via interviews to develop a prototype resource, and acceptability of this was addressed via a bespoke feedback form.
Results: After identifying key neuropsychological concepts, the narrative framework was chosen as the therapeutic base for a new resource. This led to the development of a prototype for ‘The Lobe Family’, a new strengths-based psychoeducational resource. It was envisaged that ‘The Lobe Family’ would be presented as books for younger audiences, comics for adolescent audiences, and an interactive and personalisable web-based app. Preliminary evaluation suggests that ‘The Lobe Family’ may be acceptable to CYP, although further validation of this is required.
Conclusions: Whilst methodological limitations relating to the sample necessitate further exploration of how best to meet the informational needs of the diverse ABI population, ‘The Lobe Family’ may have the potential to meet the needs of CYP who are not catered for by the existing resources, particularly adolescents experiencing enduring neurocognitive impacts.