How to create accessible research summaries for the developmental language disorder community
Authors: Gasparini Loretta , Ziegenfusz Shaun , Turner Natalie , Leitão Suze , St Clair Michelle C. , Jackson Emily 
Published: December 2024

Background

Eighty‐five percent of medical research goes to waste, partly because it is not appropriately communicated to stakeholders. This represents a critical issue for the research community, especially because individuals who are impacted by research should be able to readily access that research. Making research findings accessible to key stakeholders is an important step in implementation science and in enabling research to have meaningful impacts. Plain language summaries are a tool to make research more accessible to individuals with communication disorders. While guidelines exist to support researchers to develop plain language summaries for some populations, no such guidelines exist for the developmental language disorder (DLD) community.

Aims

We aimed to develop evidence‐informed guidelines to support researchers to create plain language summaries that are accessible for individuals with DLD, their families, and the broader community. This discussion paper describes the development of these guidelines and how they may be implemented by researchers who conduct research on the topic of DLD.

Methods

We drew from existing plain language summary guidelines for other populations and knowledge of various barriers that may impact the DLD community's ability to access scientific research. We used this knowledge to create guidelines for researchers to develop plain language summaries of their research relating to the DLD population. This includes guidelines for creating written, visual, audio and video summaries. We consulted with an adult with DLD, an implementation scientist, and a speech‐language pathologist regarding the suitability of the guidelines.

Main Contribution

The plain language summary guidelines are publicly available via https://osf.io/ydkw9. They include templates and examples, as well as suggestions for writing and visual styles. We encourage strengths‐based language, seeking feedback from non‐experts, and sharing the summaries on social media. We have also developed an online repository for researchers to disseminate their plain language summaries via DLD advocacy groups.

Conclusions

The written, audio and video plain language summaries that researchers create using our guidelines can be used to disseminate research to the DLD community. This can facilitate science implementation and maximise the impact of DLD research. The plain language summaries may also help individuals with DLD better understand the research that has been conducted about them. This may in turn support their engagement with services and empower them to make evidence‐informed choices for themselves and partner in co‐designing new research. Future research could explore the perspectives of the DLD community and researchers regarding the implementation of these guidelines.

Plain language summary

A lot of research goes to waste. This is partly because researchers rarely share their results with the non‐scientific community. People with communication disorders might find it hard to understand research papers. We made guidelines to help researchers explain their research to people with developmental language disorder (DLD. We brought together existing advice on how to explain research in a clear way. We sought advice from people with different experiences and perspectives, including an adult with DLD. The guidelines are at https://osf.io/ydkw9. The guidelines include advice on how to add pictures to research summaries. We also explain how to make a video or podcast summarising research. We encourage researchers to share their research summaries on social media. This means their research can reach more people and can make a difference. It is important that people with DLD understand DLD research. This might help them to understand their diagnosis and take part in future research.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject

For research to make a difference, it must be appropriately communicated to its stakeholders; however, only 1.5% of academic journals require authors to write plain language summaries.

What this paper adds to existing knowledge

This paper presents publicly available guidelines for researchers to create written, visual, audio and video plain language summaries aimed to be accessible for individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their families.

What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?

Researchers can use plain language summaries to disseminate research to the wider community. This can help individuals with DLD better understand the research that has been conducted about them and may empower them to meaningfully partner in co‐designing new research.