CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

Citation

Bishop DVM, Snowling MJ, Thompson PA, Greenhalgh T & McCartney E (2016) CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children. PLoS ONE, 11 (7), Art. No.: e0158753. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158753

Abstract
Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet there is little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments in children. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicine and the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them. Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possible to achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying children who might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representing ten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatrics and child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46 statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing on this topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpoint scale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the first two authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus. The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation (round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting 'agree' or 'strongly agree') was at least 80 percent for 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their response with written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resulting consensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and a concluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base. © 2016 Bishop et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Notes
Members of the CATALISE Consortium: Catherine Adams, Lisa Archibald, Gillian Baird, Ann Bauer, Jude Bellair, Christopher Boyle, Elizabeth Brownlie, Glenn Carter, Becky Clark, Judy Clegg, Nancy Cohen, Gina Conti-Ramsden, Julie Dockrell, Janet Dunn, Susan Ebbels, Aoife Gallagher, Simon Gibbs, Mandy Grist, Mary Hartshorne, Alison Hüneke, Marc Joanisse, Sally Kedge, Thomas Klee, Saloni Krishnan, Linda Lascelles, James Law, Laurence Leonard, Stephanie Lynham, Elina Mainela Arnold, Narad Mathura, Cristina McKean, Brigid McNeill, Angela Morgan, CarolAnne Murphy, Courtenay Norbury, Anne O'Hare, Janis Oram Cardy, Ciara O'Toole, Rhea Paul, Suzanne Purdy, Sean Redmond, Sheena Reilly, Laida Restrepo, Mabel Rice, Vicky Slonims, Pamela Snow, Richard Soppitt, Jane Speake, Sarah Spencer, Helen Stringer, Helen Tager-Flusberg, Rosemary Tannock, Cate Taylor, Bruce Tomblin, Joanne Volden, Marleen Westerveld, Andrew Whitehouse

Journal
PLoS ONE: Volume 11, Issue 7

People

Professor Elspeth McCartney

Honorary Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences