SMART-goal domains and goal attainment in an individualized, goal-oriented intervention for children with acquired brain injury and their families

Abstract

Pediatric acquired brain injury (pABI) may lead to long-lasting challenges in need of rehabilitation-efforts years after the insult. The Child in Context Intervention (CICI) is an individualized, goal-oriented intervention targeting children with pABI, their families and schools in the chronic phase. This paper describes the goals that patients and families in the CICI intervention group identified to work on. The 29 participating families worked on 90 goals that were predominantly coded to the domains of Body functioning (46.6%) and Activities and participation (40.5%), according to the International Classification of functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The most frequently used codes focused on fatigue and emotional symptoms, in addition to codes in the AP domain describing the need for increased independence in everyday life at school, at home, and socially. Goal attainment in the intervention group was high, with positive progress on 94.4% of the goals and positive goal achievement for all included families. The high level of goal attainment provides promising evidence of the CICI programme’s efficacy, and highlights the need to further develop evidence-based rehabilitation programs for children with pABI in the chronic stage of recovery.