3. The Parietal Lobes – A Brain Anatomy Series

Do you know what they do?

Did you know? –  They are located at the back of the top of your head. If you were to casually lean back in your chair with your hands clasped behind your head they would almost certainly be covering the parietal lobes.

Did you know? They integrate visual and sensory information to make sense of the world, among other functions.

What might you see in someone with a parietal lobe injury?

A little clumsy – Damage to the parietal lobes can cause several problems. All of which could be seen as clumsiness, for example, it can affect hand-eye coordination. It can also cause a lack of awareness of certain body parts and their surrounding space. Together these can give a general impression of behaving like “a bull in a china shop”.

Difficulty with words and numbers – Damage to the Parietal lobes interferes with visual perception and the ability to integrate information.  This can result in difficulties in reading, writing, mathematics and sometimes knowing left from right.  It can also give the individual problems visually focusing on more than one thing at a time.

Frustration and anger – Difficulty integrating information, multitasking, and understanding visual and tactile cues can cause confusion and overload. The individual might perceive this as constant criticism or feeling unintelligent due to difficulty handling multiple instructions.

A bit dishevelled – The combination of lack of hand-eye coordination and body awareness can also result in poor self-care.  The individual may be unaware that their hair needs washing or they need a shave.  Dressing can also be a physical problem as they may have difficulty manipulating clothing or doing up buttons.

How can Reach help your client?

Assessment and education – Reach’s experienced rehabilitation programme managers will carry out detailed tests and exercises to establish where the problems lie.  It can be difficult for friends and family to understand the changes they now see in the individual.  As a result, Reach may recommend that as well as providing a rehabilitation programme for the individual a programme of education about brain injury is provided for the family.

Provide Rehabilitation – Each programme is individually designed to address the problems identified and also the personal targets of the individual.  The programme will be delivered by a professionally qualified, experienced Reach Programme Manager who will work with the individual to overcome the challenges.  Reach may recommend that other specialists, such as educational consultants, be utilised to work on some specific issues.

Target-focused, time-limited – Rehabilitation is an active process of addressing problems.  At the beginning of the programme targets will be identified and achieving these will indicate that the rehabilitation programme is complete. An exception to this is children who will benefit from rehabilitation input at each of the major developmental stages in their development.  Typically these developmental stages roughly equate to starting and moving between schools.

To find out more about our rehabilitation programmes, please contact us