Concussion and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can occur due to falls, sports injuries, motor vehicle accidents, and blast injuries in the military, amongst other causes. While most individuals experience no or very temporary changes in cognition, a small percentage may experience more significant symptoms, disrupting their normal work or education activities, and in the case of athletes, hindering their return to sports. Individuals who suffer from post-concussion syndrome may experience physical, cognitive, mood, sleep, and/or visual disturbances. Speech-language pathologists experienced in neurorehabilitation are vital members on a person's rehabilitation team to address any cognitive dysfunction that remains following concussion/mTBI.

Individuals who experienced concussion/mTBI can benefit from a consultation in the relatively early healing period following the injury to receive guidance regarding appropriate rest and graduated return to activity; also to learn what to expect while recovering from the concussion and how to manage symptoms across the spontaneous healing period. For those who experience a longer duration of symptoms, speech pathology neurorehabilitation can be beneficial to manage problems with attention, memory, executive functioning, or word finding. This may include rehabilitative approaches as well as providing self-cuing and other compensatory strategies to self-manage symptoms across a longer duration of brain healing. A team approach is often key for patients experiencing post-concussive symptoms in multiple areas and effective interdisciplinary communication is critical to client outcomes: this may involve coordination of care between the attending physician, speech pathology, physical thearpy, occupational therapy or other visual rehabilitation specialists, and counseling/psychological professionals. Furthermore, in the case of student athletes, speech pathology services may include working with support personnel in the client's school system to help recommend and coordinate appropriate accomodations (e.g., guidance counselor, disability services, etc.) as well as to work with medical staff to inform return to sports (e.g., athletic trainers, coaches, etc.)

There is a saying in the field of neurorehabilitation, "If you've seen one TBI, you've seen one TBI". No two traumatic brain injuries are identical and the aftermath of such injuries looks very different from one individual to the next. Many factors, such as the location and size of the injury, the type of injury to the brain (hemorrhaging, hematomas, diffuse axonal shearing injuries, etc.) and spared areas of the brain will determine what types of neurological injuries the TBI survivor will be living with. Survivors of TBI often receive intensive rehabilitation in the immediate months and year(s) following the injury and eventually reach a place where the rate of improvements is less obvious. Moderate and severe TBIs may affect a range of brain functions; those relevant to the scope of speech-language pathology may include speech, language - both spoken and written language, attention, memory, problem solving, orientation, social skills, and visuospatial functions. Severe TBIs often result in life changing injury aftermath, both in communication and cognitive limitations, as well as potentially significant mobility , sensory, and vision problems. Survivors of severe TBI may have certain skills that are completely or nearly preserved or recovered, contrasted with other areas that are significantly affected, creating a very complex clinical picture, but also at times, neurological strengths to capitalize upon in neurorehabilitation.

In addition to intensive rehabilitation in the acute and subacute periods following injury, communication and cognitive rehabilitation can play a role in TBI survivors' lives in months and years after injury as the brain is a dynamic organ and the circumstances of survivors' lives may warrant re-involving rehabilitation services to address cognitive and/or communication needs in new or different situations.