Whatever happened after the 'return from silence'?

A case is presented of a child who, following unexpected rapid recovery of functional communication skills 9 months post-severe closed head injury, continued to progress in speech and language skills even 4 years post-injury. Although the child did not recover to premorbid levels of functioning, her recovery over such a protracted period proved quite remarkable. The case is considered in the light of recent findings on the recovery of linguistic skills subsequent to childhood closed head injury.