查看文章

Objective: To explore the educational, occupational, and socioemotional experiences of people with developmental language disorder (DLD) across the lifespan to gain insight into risk/protective factors for mental health.

Design: Qualitative analysis of focus groups and written submissions. Data were combined and analysed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis approach within a critical realist framework.

Setting: Southeast England and Western Australia

Participants: Six adults with DLD from England and five speech-language therapists from Western Australia participated in focus groups and/or contributed written responses to the research team.

Results: We developed four themes:“perspectives on diagnosis and living with an invisible disability” explores participants’ perspectives on diagnosis, the difficulty in getting a diagnosis, and perceptions of DLD as widely misunderstood;“school struggles and selfesteem from past to present” detailed school experiences and their impact on mental health;“DLD across the lifespan” explored DLD in adulthood with a focus on workplace difficulties, emotional wellbeing, and mental health;“A sense of belonging”: Communication, connection, and support” provides a lived experience account into the social participation difficulties of adults with DLD and the importance of social support.

Conclusions and implications: Adults with DLD may experience poor self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. These mental health concerns may result from:(a) exhaustion due to masking/compensating for neurodevelopmental differences,(b) loneliness and/or disempowerment due to difficulties with social interaction …