JCPSLP Vol 22 No 2 2020

Table 1. Data extracted from included studies (continued)

Document accessibility

Year

First author

Country of origin

Design/ methods

Readers

Reader characteristics

Writers (numbers where specified)

Nil

N/A

Educational psychologists

Organisation of content similar across styles; Report length = 3,493–6,574 words; average

2012 Mallin

Canada

Qualitative content- analysis of reports, readability

(Flesch- Kincaid)

readability = grade 10.8; some sig diff in readability scores bw diff report types; recommendations = 15% of total report, average no of recommendations = 6, average of 2 SMART elements per recommendation

OTs

Documents not assessed

10 parents

Parents of children ranging in age from 5 to 16 years; 100% female; secondary level education = 1; A-levels education = 2; college education = 3; undergraduate degree = 4; graduate degree = 0; working outside the home = 8 Female = 73; male = 8; new teachers = 27; special education teachers = 27; experienced teachers = 27

2014 Makepeace UK

Qualitative, semi- structured interviews

2015* Fletcher

Australia Quantitative, questionnaire

81 primary school teachers; 27 new teachers, 27 experienced teachers,

Researchers Report models

27 special education

teachers, 13 psychologists

in training, 11 starting

psychologists, 21 experienced psychologists 91 parents/ guardians of children receiving a new diagnosis

4 GCs

Improved language use (less jargon), sentence structure (simpler, shorter), increased use of active voice, explanation of genetic condition (simplified, core concepts, bullet points), length of letter (reduced to average 2 pages)

Majority white (>80%) and well educated (>75% with college degrees)

2015* Roggenbuck USA

Quantitative, non- randomised intervention design, questionnaire

89

JCPSLP Volume 22, Number 2 2020

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