Enhancing communicative participation by integrating children's contexts into speech and language therapy

This PhD research explores how speech and language therapists (SLTs) can enhance the communicative participation of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) through shared decision-making with parents and a strong focus on the child's personal and environmental context. The work is grounded in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health – Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY) framework (WHO, 2007), and focuses on four key concepts: DLD, communicative participation, shared decision-making, and contextual factors.