Editorial: Speech perception and language development in individuals with special educational needs

Individuals with special educational needs (SEN), including hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disabilities, specific learning difficulties, and developmental language disorder (DLD), often face distinct challenges in speech processing and language development. These challenges may reflect reduced access to clear sensory input, differences in attention and learning, and difficulties integrating linguistic and social cues in real time. When such barriers recur across school, clinic, and home settings, everyday communication becomes less frequent and less effective, limiting opportunities for practice and learning. Consequently, communication difficulties in SEN can impede academic progress, social participation, and emotional well-being, particularly when demands are high and support is inconsistent.Special Educational Needs, was conceived to provide a collaborative forum for researchers, educators, and clinicians to share advances spanning theoretical frameworks, assessment and diagnosis, intervention and educational supports, technology-enabled practice, and cultural and linguistic considerations. Across the nine accepted articles, a consistent message emerges: outcomes in SEN are shaped by interactions among sensory access, cognitive-linguistic processes, learning environments, and the quality and availability of supports across home, school, and clinical settings. Importantly, these contributions highlight that progress depends not only on individual capacities, but also on partner behaviors, instructional design, organizational capacity, and the accessibility of resources that enable participation. Collectively, these articles move beyond deficit-only accounts toward practical, context-sensitive approaches to assessment and support that promote inclusion, communication, and sustained engagement.Egeland-Eriksen et al. ( 2025) highlight that effective AAC implementation is enabled by communication-partner knowledge and skills, consistent modeling, accessible materials and aids, supportive attitudes, and organizational conditions that sustain practice. Their findings reinforce that AAC success is not solely determined by an individual's profile; rather, it is co-constructed through everyday opportunities, routines, and shared responsibility across educational teams. Collectively, these nine articles advance understanding of SEN by connecting mechanisms (e.g., speech, language, and related processing) with functional outcomes (e.g., participation and learning) and real-world implementation (e.g., schools, families, telehealth, and community contexts). Across the Topic, several shared priorities emerge: assessment approaches that are ecologically valid and sensitive to within-group heterogeneity; interventions that explicitly incorporate partner training, environmental design, and sustained organizational support; and technology-enabled practice evaluated not only for effectiveness but also through an equity and 6 implementation lens, with careful attention to validity when service delivery shifts to remote modalities. Future work is expected to broaden cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspectives. It may also adopt integrated measures that link structural language, pragmatics, and participation. In