THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IN SUPPORT OF PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH LANGUAGE-BASED LEARNING DISABILITIES

Parents of children with language-based learning disabilities experience barriers to accessing support to help their child and family, defined as parents' self-report of emotional, practical, and situational strategies and information. A needs assessment conducted to investigate the experiences of parents with children with language-based learning disabilities confirmed the stigma surrounding the diagnosis of a language-based learning disability, as well as parents' difficulties accessing information and emotional support. To address these findings, an intervention, an online peer-to-peer support group, was designed to provide parents of children with language-based learning disabilities with the support they seek. The Communities of Practice theoretical framework (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger Trayner, 2015) informed the group's design to address these factors. A mixed-methods study examined participants' experiences of engaging in an online community of practice and the benefits and challenges identified by participants of this virtual format. Participants' perceptions of the usefulness of information exchanged and available social support were also assessed. Twenty parents engaged in the study, consisting of eight online support group meetings over five months. Findings identified that the intervention, an online support group, effectively provided informational and social support to parents of children with language-based learning disabilities. Furthermore, for many, the online community of practice was considered manageable and easier to integrate into daily life than in-person meetings because the online format offered the convenience of accessing the group from flexible locations. While some in-person elements were identified as a possible addition to the mainly online environment, overall, findings demonstrated that participants positively received the online support group to access information and social support