The focus of this paper is the conceptualisation of students in special educational needs in mathematics (SEM students) in the research fields of mathematics and special education. A difference between fields regarding the perspectives taken on the SEM student is obvious in the reviewed articles. Those in the special educational field were individual oriented in their view of the difficulties, whilst reviewed articles from the field of mathematics education more often discuss socio-cultural settings. The content in the selected 28 articles reveals that the overall conceptualisation of SEM student has to do with the social construct of the SEM student, as well as with students’ experiences, affects, and prerequisites; with the specific training methods or interventions applied; with special areas in the subject of mathematics; with special groups of students; and with teachers’ knowledge about all these factors.