Motor Aspects of Upper Limb Functioning and Occupation Analysis

Measuring task performance after acquired brain injury: Construct and concurrent validity of ‘Upper Limb Performance Analysis’

“…First, the UL motor task needs to be broken down into a series of steps determined by the observers knowledge of typical UL movement patterns relevant to the tasks being evaluated [2]. Second, each participant's performance was scored in terms of the types and number of errors made during each task (termed Error by Type) and categorized according to: Errors of Omission; Errors of Accuracy; Errors of Repetition; and Timing Errors [2].…”

“…Stage One, the focus of this study, uses task performance analysis to break the task down into the major motor steps and then observation to identify errors in task performance. Stage Two distinguishes the underlying motor causes of errors observed in Stage One [2].…”

“…Which UL movements are generated and the way they are used is determined by the task to be performed, with each task requiring a particular pattern, strength and calibration of movement [1]. For this reason, development of measures to determine the functional efficacy of UL use is a complex and challenging process [2,3].…”

“…It is a criterion referenced measure which uses a client-centred, occupation-based task analytic approach to UL motor assessment [2]. The task analysed is typically selected by negotiation between the client and therapist, reflecting the current goals of rehabilitation.…”

“…The Upper Limb Performance Analysis (ULPA) [2] has been developed to assess hand performance during every-day UL tasks. It is a criterion referenced measure which uses a client-centred, occupation-based task analytic approach to UL motor assessment [2].…”