Guided Mastery Path · Foundations

Step 3 of 10: Foundational concepts and cautions

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.

The core diagnostic question this block answers, and the safety cautions that apply to every category in it.

The core diagnostic concept (F80)

F80 requires a genuine discrepancy: speech or language skills clearly and specifically below the level expected for the child's age and general intellectual ability, present from an early stage of development (not an acquired loss), and not better explained by a hearing impairment, an oral/articulatory structural abnormality, global intellectual disability, or autism. All four conditions must hold together — a language delay explained by any one of these alternatives is not F80.

Cautions that apply to this whole block Educational resource only. This page and its cases teach ICD-10 classification reasoning using fictional scenarios. It does not diagnose real people and should not be used to assess yourself or anyone else. If you are concerned about a child's development, speech, learning, motor skills, or social communication, please speak with a qualified professional for assessment and support.

Read the full About and Safety page →

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.
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.
Visited
Foundations
Foundational concepts and cautions
The core diagnostic question this block answers, and the safety cautions that apply to every category in it.
Current step
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

View your full Session Summary →