For most patients, post-concussion symptoms resolve without intervention. However, approximately 15% of patients demonstrate a long-term manifestation of symptoms and experience a prolonged and sporadic recovery. This is known as post-concussive syndrome (PCS). Research has identified several risk factors which can predispose individuals to PCS:

 

• History of  previous concussions or head trauma

• Early presentation after injury of the following clinical symptoms: headache, fatigue and cognitive changes such as memory loss, confusion,  or fatigue

• Younger age 

 

Patients with PCS can demonstrate deficits in cognitive/communication function. The cognitive/communicative impairments following a mTBI can include deficits in speech, language, social cognition, executive functioning and speed of processing. These deficits can be exhibited by the following behaviors:

 

• Difficulty producing speech sounds correctly

• Difficulty using or understanding  the intonation, fluctuations, and inflections of speech

• Experiencing aprosodia: the inability to understand or use the affective aspects  of speech

• Difficulty understanding or using spoken and/or written language

• Word finding problems

• Difficulty understanding the subtleties of language such as using or identifying emotions, facial expressions, gestures, or body language.

• Difficulty carrying on conversations; disorganized thoughts and speech

• Inability or difficulty paying attention or staying on-task

• Decrease in memory function; difficulties remembering test information

• Inability to organize oral and written information

• Increased information processing time or decreased information processing skills

• Lack of or decrease in executive functioning skills such as:  initiation and completion of tasks, self-regulation, sequencing, prioritizing, time management, or mental flexibility