Children's participation in school and leisure activities after paediatric acquired brain injury—Children's, parents' and teachers' experiences

Children living with the consequences of paediatric acquired brain injury (pABI) may experience persistent challenges that impact their social interactions, academic performance and community integration. Participating in activities is of paramount importance for the development of social and academic skills. The participants in this qualitative interview study were recruited from the Child in Context Intervention study, a pragmatic randomised controlled trial aimed at improving the daily lives of the children and their families in the chronic phase of pABI, which involves persistent challenges that children face for more than a year following their brain injury. This study, conducted after the CICI intervention, aimed to understand how paediatric pABI affects children's participation in educational and social settings, as well as the challenges faced by parents and teachers and the benefits of their collaboration. The findings show that fatigue presents a considerable barrier to children's participation and that accommodating their participation requires parents and teachers to manage challenges such as fatigue collaboratively and separately. The findings also highlight the importance of timely access to expertise about pABI and specialised support from professionals when necessary to facilitate effective collaboration among children, parents and teachers with a long‐term perspective in mind.