Guided Mastery Path · Orient

Step 1 of 10: Block orientation

This is your path progress — how far you've moved through the recommended sequence. It is not a measure of what you've actually mastered; see "Your mastery evidence" further down for that.

What F80-F89 covers, why it is organised the way it is, and how its 7 categories relate to one another.

This block groups seven active categories spanning specific developmental disorders of speech and language (F80), scholastic skills (F81), and motor function (F82), a mixed specific developmental disorder category (F83), pervasive developmental disorders (F84), an 'other' residual category (F88), and an unspecified residual category (F89). F80-F83 share the same underlying specific-developmental-disorder exclusion logic — early onset, steady course, and a deficit not explained by inadequate opportunity, by general intellectual level, or by a sensory/neurological condition that would directly account for it — captured in a shared capsule rather than a block-level field, since it does not extend to F84's qualitatively different, triad-based definition or to F88/F89's residual categories. This block also carries its own content-sensitivity scope decisions — see claude/F80-F89-scope-decision.md for the full reasoning, summarised in 'why_it_matters' below.

Why this mattersF80-F83's boundary work matters because a skill delay is routinely mistaken for a specific developmental disorder without first ruling out inadequate opportunity to learn or checking that the deficit is genuinely disproportionate to general ability, not merely present alongside a lower one. F84 requires careful, dignity-focused handling of several genuinely contested points: this product departs from its own usual person-first convention to use identity-first language ('autistic person') as F84's primary convention, reflecting autistic self-advocates' own documented and growing preference for it, while still acknowledging person-first language as legitimate; F84.4's own official title still uses the outdated term 'mental retardation', addressed with the same terminology note used across the F70-F79 block; the historically harmful and factually baseless idea that autism is caused by cold or inadequate parenting ('refrigerator mother' theory) is actively corrected, not neutrally noted, mirroring the precedent set for F66's internalized-stigma correction; the informal, non-diagnostic 'high-functioning'/'low-functioning' labels are explicitly flagged as neither part of the classification nor evidence of an absence of impairment; and Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder, both defined by a period of normal development followed by a definite regression, are presented with the same dignity as every other subtype, never as a lesser or frightening outcome. F88 and F89 complete this block's own 'other versus unspecified' residual-category pair, reusing the reasoning pattern already established elsewhere in this application and reinforcing, through F89, the existing 'unspecified as a shortcut for a vignette that simply takes more effort to read' correction first introduced for F39.

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All ten steps

Orient
Block orientation
What F80-F89 covers, why it is organised the way it is, and how its 7 categories relate to one another.
Current step
Orient
Classification map
A quick-reference map of all 7 F80-F89 codes and titles, so you know the terrain before going deep on any one of them.
Foundations
Foundational concepts and cautions
The core diagnostic question this block answers, and the safety cautions that apply to every category in it.
Foundations
Worked reasoning example
A full worked example of classification reasoning, step by step, using the anchor category F80.
Learn
Category learning units
Open each of the 7 category learning units in turn — this step tracks your progress across all of them.
Compare
Boundary comparisons
Work through the Boundary Comparison Lab — what overlaps, what discriminates, and the most common learner error for each pair.
Practise
Progressive case practice
The Case Lab, including the staged Type C/D cases where new information arrives after your first judgement.
Repair
Misconception repair
The Misconception Repair Lab: the tempting shortcut, why it fails, the better rule, and a short transfer check.
Test
Mixed Mastery Check
Novel, mixed-order transfer items across all six reasoning dimensions, with a formative report at the end.
Review
Session Summary and revision
Your Session Summary, plain-language state per mastery dimension, and where to go for Rapid Revision.

Jump to any step at any time — this path never locks you in.

Your mastery evidence (not the same as path progress)

This reflects actual answers from the Case Lab, Decision Lab and Mastery Check this session — it does not move just because you've opened more steps above.

Structure Not attempted

Concept Not attempted

Evidence Not attempted

Boundary Not attempted

Uncertainty Not attempted

Transfer Not attempted

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