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Rationale: To achieve consensus amongst front-line clinicians on categories and definitions of preschoolers’ communication impairments, with findings incorporated into a classification tool. Methods: A three-round Modified Delphi study was completed with community speech-language pathologists (N=38) who reviewed three documents that categorized and defined: (1) broadly-focused impairments, (2) language disorders, and (3) speech sound disorders. Clinicians rated whether the documents were clear and made suggestions for improvement (consensus criterion = 90% agreement across all documents). Results: In Round 1, 90% agreement was reached only for the language disorders document. In Round 2, no consensus was reached for the speech sound disorders document. In Round 3, consensus was reached for all three documents. To incorporate new terminology recommendations released after Round 3, an additional round was conducted for the language disorders document, and 90% consensus was reached. Conclusions: The agreed-upon documents support consistent labelling amongst community clinicians and are being used in a developing classification tool. This part of the tool is undergoing reliability testing prior to use in population-based studies. Preliminary reliability data will be presented.
Funding: Community-catalyst grant, McMaster University.
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