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Professionals The professionals’ perceptions of the usability and satisfaction of Language Together mirrored those of the caregivers, with high overall ratings for both. This is unsurprising as the subgroup of professionals were similar to the caregivers in that they were also predominantly female, university educated and with a keen interest in child development. No significant correlations between demographic variables and acceptability ratings were detected. A larger group of professionals is required to conduct a sufficient correlational analysis. The professionals also identified convenience and flexibility as the main facilitative factor of online training. Insights from the professionals reflect findings of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (2015), providing further support for the desire for freely available and time-efficient online training about language development within this population. Limitations and recommendations for future research There are some limitations to consider with this study. The study included a homogenous sample with participants who were predominantly Caucasian, female, university educated and within the 31–40-year-old age bracket. Thus, results may not reflect the perceptions of a wider population of caregivers and lack generalisability to caregivers of children in at-risk populations. Future research should aim to include a larger sample of ethnically, educationally and gender diverse caregivers as they are likely to face different barriers in the completion of online training and offer varying perceptions relating to acceptability. While the acceptability of the program was rated highly, an emphasised barrier was the lack of real-time interaction with peers and the instructors. The online forum did not adequately fulfil this desire. Future research should explore the acceptability of a hybrid model of parent coaching where independent online materials are combined with live videoconferencing with a speech-language pathologist (Nitsche et al., 2021; Snodgrass et al., 2017). Conclusion Our findings provide preliminary evidence that Language Together was generally perceived as useable and satisfying. Only a small portion of participants had previously completed training about language development and almost all indicated they would complete more online training on this topic if it were available. This aligns with previous research highlighting a lack of acceptable resources on this topic for parents (McGill & McLeod, 2019) and professionals (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, 2015). This study provides encouraging evidence that an interactive online training program is an acceptable and time efficient way of providing training about language development to caregivers and professionals. It contributes to an understanding of barriers and facilitators to engaging in this type of training which can inform the development and dissemination of future programs. Declaration of interest statement The authors report no declarations of interest References Australian Medicare Local Alliance. Coughler, C., Burke, S., & Cardy, J. O. (2020). Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk. Autism and Developmental

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Creswell, J. W. (2013). Steps in conducting a scholarly mixed methods study . Discipline-Based Education Research Group. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dberspeakers/48/ Douglas, S. N., Nordquist, E., Kammes, R., & Gerde, H. (2017). Online parent training to support children with complex communication needs. Infants & Young Children , 30 (4), 288–303. https://doi.org/10.1097/ IYC.0000000000000101 Hall, C. M., & Bierman, K. L. (2015). Technology-assisted interventions for parents of young children: Emerging practices, current research, and future directions. Early Childhood Research Quarterly , 33 , 21–32. http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.05.003 Irwin, L. G., Siddiqi, A., & Hertzman, G. (2007). Early child development: A powerful equalizer (Final report for the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health). World Health Organization. https:// www.who.int/social_determinants/resources/ecd_kn_ report_07_2007.pdf Kaiser, A. P., & Roberts, M. Y. (2013). Parents as communication partners: An evidence-based strategy for improving parent support for language and communication in everyday settings. Perspectives on Language Learning and Education , 20 (3), 96–111. https://doi.org/10.1044/ lle20.3.96 Karavias, D., Middleton, E., O’Leary, E., Phillips, A., Stewart, E., & Trollope, A. (n.d.). Getting ready to talk . La Trobe University. Kobak, K. A., Stone, W. L., Wallace, E., Warren, Z., Swanson, A., & Robson, K. (2011). A web-based tutorial for parents of young children with autism: Results from a pilot study. T elemedicine and e-Health , 1 7 (10), 804-808. https:// doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2011.0060 Lee, M. K. O., Cheung, C. M. K., & Chen, Z. (2005). Acceptance of internet-based learning medium: The role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Information and Management , 42 , 1095–1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. im.2003.10.007 Lynch, P. J., & Horton, S. (2016). Web style guide: Foundations of user experience design . Yale University Press. Majumdar, S. (2003). Pedagogical framework for online learning. European Journal of Vocational Training , 28 , 21–30. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ678557 McGill, N., & McLeod, S. (2019). Aspirations for a website to support families’ active waiting for speech- language pathology. International Journal of Speech- Language Pathology , 21 (3), 263–274. https://doi.org/10.10 80/17549507.2019.1604802 McLeod, S., & Harrison, L. J. (2009). Epidemiology of speech and language impairment in a nationally representative sample of 4-to 5-year-old children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research , 52 (5), 1213– 1229. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0085) McLeod, S., Davis, E., Rohr, K., McGill, N., Miller, K., Roberts, A., Thornton, S., Ahio, N., & Ivory, N. (2020) Waiting for speech- language pathology services: A randomised controlled trial comparing therapy, advice and device. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , 22 (3), 372–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549 507.2020.1731600 Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. (2015). Every toddler talking (phase one): Final report . https://www. education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/research/ everytoddlertalkingphase1reportfin.pdf

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