Children and young people's experiences of living with developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia: study protocol for a qualitative evidence synthesis

Background Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) face significant challenges to deal with everyday activities due to underlying motor proficiency difficulties. These challenges affect children and young people’s participation; that is, involvement in daily life situations. Recent years have seen a growing body of qualitative research examining children’s experiences of living with DCD. Meta-ethnographic synthesis offers a rigorous approach to bring together the findings of discrete qualitative studies to be synthesised in order to advance the conceptual understanding of living with DCD, which is not well conceptualised in the literature to date. Conducting a meta-ethnographic synthesis will help to illuminate the meaning of children and young people’s experiences of DCD regarding their involvement in everyday activities and situations. Aim This study aims to systematically review and synthesise qualitative literature regarding children and young people’s experiences and views of everyday life and living with DCD. Methods The method of qualitative evidence synthesis that will be followed in this review is a meta-ethnography. The eMERGe and PRISMA reporting guidelines will be adhered to. Ten databases will be searched; Academic Search Complete, AMED, CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsychArticles, PsychInfo, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science. The Joanna Briggs Institute Checklist will be used by two independent reviewers to appraise all included papers. PROSPERO registration number CRD42019129178 Discussion The findings of this meta-ethnography will endeavour to inform future research, policy and practice. In particular, the results will help to inform the design of future complex interventions to meet the needs of children and young people with DCD. Dissemination will involve the publication of the results in a peer-reviewed journal. Increasingly researchers and policymakers are calling for services to be informed by the perspective and voice of children with DCD. Therefore, a policy brief will be published so that the findings are widely available.