From research to policy to practice: prescription for success for students with learning disabilities.

As a community, physicians with expertise in child development and an appreciation of school-related challenges are uniquely positioned to enhance the well-being of children with specific learning disabilities. Efforts in such areas as differential diagnosis, enhancing communication between home and school and among parents and related service providers, accountability for effective and timely intervention, advocacy, and the application of scientific approaches to instruction and progress monitoring are among the ways in which the medical community can support children with special learning needs.