Beyond Diagnostic Silos: Specific Learning Difficulties and Developmental Language Disorder Across DSM-5-TR and ICD-11

When a child struggles to read, write, or learn mathematics, the role of language is too often overlooked. Specific learning difficulties remain among the most discussed yet inconsistently conceptualised neurodevelopmental conditions in education and clinical practice. In DSM-5-TR, Specific Learning Disorder is defined through persistent difficulties in reading, written expression, and/or mathematics, whereas ICD-11 distinguishes developmental learning disorder from developmental speech or language disorders. This classificatory split matters because language weaknesses often co-occur with literacy and academic learning difficulties, yet research, assessment, and intervention are still too often organised in separate silos. The result is fragmentation across disciplines, terminology, and service systems. This Research Topic will bring together work that rethinks these boundaries, placing special learning difficulties in dialogue with developmental language disorder and highlighting what this means for identification, differential diagnosis, comorbidity, and inclusive educational support across multilingual and culturally diverse contexts. These distinctions have practical implications for teaching and inclusive education, shaping how learners’ needs are identified, supported, and addressed in classrooms and policy contexts.This Research Topic aims to address a persistent problem in the field: children, adolescents, and adults with learning difficulties are frequently studied, diagnosed, and supported through frameworks that insufficiently account for language. Although literacy, writing, and mathematics difficulties are central to Specific Learning Disorder, language is often treated as peripheral rather than foundational. At the same time, developmental language disorder and related ICD-11 speech or language classifications are not always integrated into education-facing discussions of special learning difficulties.We seek contributions that clarify how these conditions intersect, how they diverge, and how classification choices shape screening, assessment, referral, intervention, and policy. By bringing together educational, clinical, linguistic, and psychological perspectives, this Research Topic aims to generate a sharper evidence base for transdiagnostic, developmentally informed, and context-sensitive approaches, particularly those relevant to multilingual learners, culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and learners whose needs are missed when language and learning are considered separately. We hope this Research Topic will inform educators, clinicians, and policymakers on approaches that integrate language and learning support more effectively.We invite manuscripts that examine the conceptual, diagnostic, educational, and clinical interfaces between specific learning difficulties and developmental language disorder. Relevant themes include: links between oral language and literacy/mathematics outcomes; comorbidity and differential diagnosis; DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 comparisons; developmental trajectories from preschool to adulthood; multilingual and CALD learners; assessment validity and bias; early identification; intervention and response to intervention; school-based supports; teacher knowledge; family and systems perspectives; and policy implications for inclusive education. We welcome Original Research, Review, Systematic Review, Mini Review, Methods, Perspective, Policy Brief, and Policy and Practice Review articles, aligning with Frontiers in Education article types.Submissions from interdisciplinary teams are especially encouraged, particularly those bridging education, speech-language pathology, psychology, linguistics, and health. Contributions employing diverse methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, as well as theoretical and conceptual analyses, are welcome. Topic editors: Weifeng Han, XIN WANG, Kin Eng Chin Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80156/beyond-diagnostic-silos-specific-learning-difficulties-and-developmental-language-disorder-across-dsm-5-tr-and-icd-11