37.1647, Calls: Frontiers in Education - "Special Issue: Beyond Diagnostic Silos: Specific Learning Difficulties and Developmental Language Disorder Across DSM-5-TR and ICD-11" (Jrnl)

Mon May 4 16:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1647. Mon May 04 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1647, Calls: Frontiers in Education - "Special Issue: Beyond Diagnostic Silos: Specific Learning Difficulties and Developmental Language Disorder Across DSM-5-TR and ICD-11" (Jrnl)

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Date: 30-Apr-2026
From: Weifeng Han [ctwhan at gmail.com]
Subject: Frontiers in Education - "Special Issue: Beyond Diagnostic Silos: Specific Learning Difficulties and Developmental Language Disorder Across DSM-5-TR and ICD-11" (Jrnl)

Journal: Frontiers in Education
Issue: Beyond Diagnostic Silos: Specific Learning Difficulties and
Developmental Language Disorder Across DSM-5-TR and ICD-11
Call Deadline: 25-Oct-2026

Topic page:
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80156/beyond-diagnostic-silos-specific-learning-difficulties-and-developmental-language-disorder-across-dsm-5-tr-and-icd-11
Background:
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.
This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless
otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:
 - Brief Research Report
 - Conceptual Analysis
 - Editorial
 - FAIR² Data
 - FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
 - General Commentary
 - Hypothesis and Theory
 - Methods
 - Mini Review
 - Opinion
 - Original Research
 - Perspective
 - Policy and Practice Reviews
 - Policy Brief
 - Review
 - Systematic Review
Topic Editors:
Weifeng  Han
Flinders Educational Futures Research Institute, Flinders University
Bedford Park, Australia
Xin Wang
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia
Kin Eng  Chin
Murdoch University
Perth, Australia

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Clinical Linguistics
                     Cognitive Science
                     Language Acquisition
                     Neurolinguistics

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