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Although deinstitutionalization of mentally retarded people has become established as a goal within the social service system, its continued momentum will depend on the careful planning of services for those now in institutions. This study, therefore, explored the physical and behavioral characteristics of a national sample of the mentally retarded in residential facilities to provide information on the needs that will have to be met by community policies and programs.

The motor proficiency of 55 learning disabled and 55 nondisabled students was compared on a comprehensive battery of motor-skills tests. Learning disabled students performed significantly lower than nondisabled students on measures of fine motor skills and on measures of gross motor skills. Their greatest deficiencies were on tasks requiring body equilibrium, controlled fine visual-motor movements, and bilateral coordination of movements involving different parts of the body. All of these areas include complex motor patterns that require the integration of visual and kinesthetic senses with motor responses. Implications of these findings for the development of motor training programs and for future research are discussed.

This article reports on a survey of 37 educators regarding future directions in the education of students with disabilities. The survey used the Delphi technique. For the decade of the 1990s and after the year 2000, respondents' predictions included the following: The movement toward increasing inclusion will occur; the belief will prevail that people with disabilities have a right to participate in inclusive environments; students with mild disabilities will be educated in general classrooms; teachers will increase their use of instructional approaches such as cooperative learning and instructional technology; and researchers will focus on matching instructional needs with learner characteristics.

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