This issue presents some excerpts from the Commonwealth Conference on Non-Formal Education for Development, held in New Delhi, India, January 22-February 2, 1979, concerning the concept and tasks of nonformal education. Includes a few observations and recommendations from each of the Conference's 12 committees. (MF)

Dance therapy deals with personal growth via body-mind interaction. A change in movement expression is believed to result in a personality or behavior change. The therapist is trained to become sensitive to movement expression as it relates to the psychological, motor, and cognitive development of the child. (JN)

State program review, generally asosciated with efforts to assess quality and enforce accountability, has also encouraged the states to look beyond traditional measures in evaluating their support for and investment in higher education. When access and finance issues meet head on, quality concerns may give way. (Author/MLW)

Down's syndrome adolescents were compared with age- and I.Q.-matched non-Down's syndrome retardates on a two-point finger tapping task. Results supported the hypothesis that Down's syndrome retardates show a deficit in developing and utilizing preprogramed motor sequences. (CM)

The battery of perceptual and perceptual-motor tests (including one fine and two gross perceptual-motor tasks, and one visual and two auditory perceptual tasks) were useful for prediction of cognitive performance one year later at kindergarten age. However, cognitive achievement in first grade, and even more so in second grade, was best predicted…

This article compares and contrasts various types of external degree and nontraditional graduate programs including their organization, objectives, and problems. (JMF)

This study examined the association between selected family characteristics and some gross motor traits of children diagnosed as either educable mentally retarded or minimally brain-injured. (MM)

Explains five functions a school can serve in a child abuse and child neglect cases. Notes other sources of help for abused children not yet of school age, such as play groups, family shelters, and crisis nurseries. Explains the flaws in various past methods of treating child abuse. (SB)

The author describes the model community education program at Waipahu Intermediate School, with emphasis on its parent involvement methods, its special activities for immigrant students, and the role of its community facilitator. This article is part of a theme issue on community education in Hawaii. (SJL)

An investigation of the relationship of four perceptual and perceptual-motor skills to two measures of reading achievement in normal and learning disabled children in the second grade suggested that deficits in perceptual skills are not highly related to reading performance. (MKM)

The belief that strong initiatives by the federal government are essential to achieving liberal social welfare programs is not supported by the record. What matters may not be which level of government administers the programs, but instead the dynamism engendered by changing relationships among state, local, and federal governments. (Author)

Presents the four components that must exist before any on-the-job training program can be successful and discusses twelve specific problems of cooperative training (at the secondary level) that present the greatest problems to on-the-job training coordinators. (SH)

An examination of the activities of two state boards having jurisdiction over community colleges in Illinois determined that twice as much time and effort was devoted to control as compared to coordination; thus, a board with greater control powers may be necessary to handle competition among institutions within an education system. (JG)

In Canada's Exemplary Schools Project, a national committee designed and coordinated 21 case studies. A committee member recounts decisions made about design and method, and highlights differences between method and methodology, as well as variations in conceptualization of qualitative research. Discusses the meaning of "exemplary,"…

Assessed effects of sleep restriction and extension on 9- to 12-year-olds' neurobehavioral functioning. Found that modest sleep restriction led to improved sleep quality but to reduced reported alertness. Children who extended sleep improved significantly from baseline their performance on the digit forward memory test and reaction time on the…