Making Research Accessible to the Developmental Language Disorder Community: A Mixed Methods Study Using the Nominal Group Technique

Background

Accessing research can be difficult for individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their supporting networks (e.g., family, speech–language therapists, and teachers). This challenge may be attributable to the DLD community's difficulty with searching and paying for scientific research and the complexity of language used in dissemination methods such as journal articles. It is important that members of the DLD community can access and understand research to facilitate the community's involvement in research and as a key part of building knowledge of DLD. To date, no studies have explored the DLD community's perspectives on their preferences for accessing and understanding research.

Aims

This mixed methods study aimed to explore the DLD community's perspectives on how researchers can make their findings more accessible.

Methods and Procedures

An international group of parents of children with DLD (including one parent who also had DLD) and a speech–language therapist (n = 9) participated in a nominal group technique process to share their perspectives. The group identified a range of methods that researchers could use to make DLD research more accessible to the community, which they discussed in depth and then ranked in order of preference. Consensus ranking analysis was used to identify preferred methods for research dissemination. The ranking exercise was supplemented by in-depth discussions about research accessibility, which were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Outcomes and Results

Participants identified plain language summaries, flyers, infographics, and short videos as their preferred formats for making scientific research accessible to the DLD community. Qualitative analyses highlighted four main categories of recommendations for researchers, including the use of text-based, visual (static), and multimedia (dynamic) approaches, as well as recommendations for making language adjustments and involving the DLD community in disseminating research findings.

Conclusions and Implications

This study will help researchers better understand the DLD community's needs, enabling more effective dissemination of their findings to those most impacted by the research. In return, research findings are more likely to be translated into a form that the community can understand.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on this subject

• Accessing research can be difficult for individuals with DLD and their supporting networks (e.g., family, speech–language therapists [SLTs], and teachers). No previous studies have explored the DLD community's perspective of their ability to access and understand the findings of research on the topic of DLD.

What this study adds to the existing knowledge

• This is the first known study to explore the perspectives of the DLD community on how researchers should disseminate findings in an accessible manner. The participants in our study ranked plain language summaries, flyers/pamphlets, infographics, and short videos as their preferred formats of disseminating scientific research.

What are the clinical implications for this study?

• We provide clear recommendations to researchers from the perspective of individuals from the DLD community. These include a range of formats and methods for increasing accessibility to, and engagement with, research findings. Improving accessibility may lead to empowerment of the DLD community and may aid their ongoing engagement in research processes.