In general, studies have not been conducted with designs capable of providing evidence for effectiveness of interventions for children and adolescents with TBI. Because the focus of this project was effectiveness, many studies were excluded because they did not provide experimental evidence that could be used to guide practice. The published literature for this topic is primarily exploratory. It provides descriptions of programs that are widely accepted, including logical approaches to treatment that have not been validated either through experimental design or in carefully controlled observational studies. The clinical experience represented in the published literature that has guided the design of intervention programs should generate important hypotheses for controlled studies.
Investigations of what might work to rehabilitate children with TBI may benefit from the literature in other related fields. Future research could be guided by themes that have emerged across many disability groups. Although TBI has unique features, it shares many characteristics with other disabilities. The task is to identify the shared characteristics, and include what has been learned in other fields when designing interventions. One example is social skills training. Certain models for social skills training and cognitive rehabilitation have been shown to be ineffective with people who have other, similar disabilities, yet these models are being used in TBI rehabilitation. At the very least, the failure of these interventions in other fields should call into question their effectiveness with TBI. Similarly, it is important to pay attention to and systematically test successful approaches in other fields.