Functional impacts of neurodevelopmental disorders in primary school settings: a scoping review protocol

Le résumé fourni par la source

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are conditions which, according to the DSM-5-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2022), arise during the developmental period and may manifest through highly specific limitations in learning or executive functioning, as well as through more global impairments affecting social abilities or intellectual capacities. These disorders, namely intellectual developmental disorder, communication disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specific learning disorder, developmental coordination disorder, stereotypic movement disorder, and tic disorders (including both motor and vocal tics), frequently co-occur with one another and may also be associated with behavioural or mental health difficulties. Moreover, they affect personal, social, academic, and occupational functioning. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (World Health Organization, 2001) further highlights that these disorders, through their interaction with environmental factors, can influence social participation in everyday activities, thereby also affecting overall functioning. Within this perspective, children spend most of their time in educational settings. To gain a deeper understanding of the inclusion of students with neurodevelopmental disorders in mainstream primary education, the concept of functional impact offers a valuable analytical lens. Grounded in the ICF framework, it connects difficulties observed in specific domains with their broader consequences for social and school participation (Ross-Lévesque et al., 2024; Maillart et al., 2024; Gentelet & Lafay, 2024). While various tools have been developed to assess functional impacts in areas such as language or mathematics, these instruments remain largely domain specific. Such fragmentation limits the comparability of findings across learning domains and obscures students’ transversal functional needs. Although the concept of functional impact holds significant potential for identifying barriers and resources within education, its use remains inconsistent. Definitions are often tied to specific diagnostic categories, resulting in conceptual heterogeneity and a lack of shared measurement tools. This ambiguity limits the capacity to compare findings across studies and to inform evidence-based inclusive educational practices. Given the conceptual heterogeneity and the exploratory nature of the topic, a scoping review is the most appropriate methodology to comprehensively map the current state of knowledge regarding the concept of functional impact. This scoping review therefore aims to explore how functional impact is defined and investigated in children with neurodevelopmental disorders attending mainstream primary schools.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.