There is absolutely nothing in this world that's worse for a parent than to see their child suffer. When the child's suffering is the result of someone's disregard for others -- as in the case of a car accident caused by a negligent Charlotte driver -- the heartbreak of the parents is intensified.

Researchers are now saying that traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in young children can lead to years of difficulties in crucial functions such as motor skills, language and cognition.

The Centers for Disease Control says the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries is falls, followed by car accidents, events in which a person is struck by something (collisions with a moving or stationary object), and assaults.

In recently published research, an Australian researcher wrote that she and her colleagues found that kids who suffer TBI can deal with a decade of cognition problems after the injury.

It had previously been thought that the problems lasted for up to five years.

The researchers observed a group of 40 children from ages two to seven. All had suffered traumatic brain injuries; most had sustained them in car accidents or in bad falls.

They were given a wide range of tests that measured their cognitive, behavioral and social skills at the time of their injuries, and then those skills were measured again after three months, six months, a year and a half, and again five years and 10 years later.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the children with the most severe brain injuries struggled the most with skill deficits over the course of those years. Those with less severe injuries had less arduous struggles.

The injured children were compared to a group of 16 control participants who had no brain injuries.

The research was published in the journal Pediatrics.

Source: Time: "Study: Brain Injuries in Childhood Have Lasting Effects on Learning," Alice Park, Jan. 23, 2012