Making Research Accessible to the Developmental Language Disorder Community
- Michelle St Clair
- Dec 3, 2025
- 2 min read
Citation
Jackson, E., Wijaya, J., Bhatoolaul, S., Tan, Q. X., & Leitão, S. (2025). Making Research Accessible to the Developmental Language Disorder Community: A Mixed Methods Study Using the Nominal Group Technique. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(5), e70096.
Key terms that are in this paper
Plain language summaries: short summaries of scientific research written for the general public, including people with language disabilities.
Aim of the paper
This study aimed to understand how to make research more accessible to individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their supportive networks (e.g., family, speech therapists, teachers).
This is important as understanding research can allow people in the DLD community to make important decisions based on evidence.
The paper looked at two main challenges: 1) accessing scientific papers (which are often expensive or difficult to find on the Internet) and 2) understanding scientific papers (which often use complex words and grammar)
This research led discussions with two small groups of parents of children with DLD, and a speech and language therapist.
What was found
The groups discussed several formats they found useful for understanding research.
These were: plain-language summaries, one-page posters, infographics (clear, visual summaries of data), and short videos, with links to the original research article.
The groups agreed that researchers should use text-based, visual and multimedia approaches like social media videos.
The groups suggested that researchers used simple words and shorter chunks of text.
The groups highlighted the importance of including people with DLD in sharing scientific findings.
What does this mean?
These findings can be used to make research more accessible and understandable for the DLD community.
Sharing findings with the DLD community is important because they are most impacted by the research.
Researchers should use a variety of formats to meet different needs and community styles in the DLD community.
Where can I read the paper?
You can read this paper for free by following this link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1460-6984.70096
YouTube Summary: https://youtu.be/NA5ivsfRzVo ;:
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