Key Stakeholder Views on Educational Support and Academic Progress for Students With Developmental Language Disorder.

Purpose: Provision of adequate support is much needed to secure equal educational opportunities for students with developmental language disorder (DLD). Important perspectives on support provision and its impact on academic progress are held by school professionals, caregivers, and students with DLD. This study sought to further the current knowledge on the perceived relation between educational support and academic progress for students with DLD by exploring key stakeholders’ experiences. Method: The study was centered around three students with DLD in the latter part of Swedish compulsory school (aged 12–16 years). The students, their caregivers, teachers, members of the support staff, and school-based speechlanguage pathologists were organized in three clusters, each centered around one student with DLD. Based on individual semistructured interviews, the stakeholders’ perspectives were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: All stakeholders described educational support as crucial for the facilitation of the students’ academic progress. Despite similarities in support provision, the perceived relation between the support provided and the students’ academic progress varied in the three clusters. Our analysis is presented as three main themes, each constructed from stakeholder experiences in one cluster: (a) tradeoff between student effort and achievement, (b) when support is not supportive, and (c) collaboration and targeted support have made great difference. Conclusions: The results of this study emphasize the complexity of the relation between educational support and academic progress, showing that outcomes may differ considerably between educational contexts, despite similarities in support provision. The results suggest that the development of adequate support for students with DLD needs to include the perspectives of key stakeholders, particularly students themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]