About the Program

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The Boston University ICCR program is a 12-week intensive therapy program for young adults with stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other acquired brain injuries (ABI) that operates via the Center for Brain Recovery at Boston University.

It is designed for young adults (ranging approximately from 18-36 years of age) who want to pursue college and are currently unable to meet that goal due to language and/or cognitive deficits associated with their brain injury.

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Overview

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an injury to the brain caused by external forces, such as a car accident or fall, that may impair the cognitive domains of attention, memory, and/or reasoning. Aphasia is a language disorder caused by a stroke or other injury to the brain’s communication networks that results in speaking, listening, reading, and/or writing impairments.

ICCR program is a remote (online) 12-week intensive therapy program for young adults with TBI or aphasia, who are interested in continuing or pursuing higher education. ICCR integrates classroom-style lectures with individual and group therapy to capitalize on the following principles of neural plasticity: intensity, specificity, repetition, and salience.

A program like ICCR is sorely needed for the young Acquired Brain Injuries (ABI) population. These individuals want to return to school but need to strengthen their cognitive-linguistic skills in a structured and encouraging environment before they can succeed in a typical classroom. ICCR takes a functional approach, allowing students to get much-needed practice implementing strategies that will be relevant in a university setting, and to do so in a supportive, slower-paced environment. Simultaneously, ICCR utilizes impairment-based treatment, providing students with direct therapy for specific cognitive-linguistic goal areas. Both impairment-based and functionally based treatment paradigms have been shown to improve communication skills after brain injury in an intensive environment; ICCR unifies the two. In addition, we are hopeful that our therapy’s online format will make this needed program more accessible to individuals in various geographic locations.

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