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The best therapist is a lifelong learner who can in turn then be a gifted teacher. To teach is to empower and to help ignite someone else’s possibilities and help bring a dream into being.
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Cornerstone Concepts
Motor learning defined and differentiated from motor control
Types of learning including clinical examples
Motor learning theories: Adams’, Schmidt’s, and ecological theory
Key elements of learning and therapeutic considerations including the environment, arousal, attention, motivation, meaning, instruction, guidance, feedback, practice, and skill acquisition versus transfer
Stages of motor learning: Fitts model and Gentile model
The therapist’s role in acquisition and transfer and the importance of purposeful activity
Life span issues related to motor learning
Learning during childhood
Adult learners
Learning changes related to aging
Learning as affected by common neurological disorders
Learning for individuals with cognitive impairment
Learning after brain injury
Learning after a cerebrovascular accident
Learning challenges for individuals with Parkinson’s disease
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Effective therapists think of themselves as teachers or facilitators of human movement education or reeducation. Patients/clients are learners and therefore are our students. It is imperative that physical and occupational therapists and assistants utilize effective teaching and learning strategies when working with patients/clients. This chapter is the first chapter in Part 2 of this text, devoted to application of theory to patient/client intervention. This chapter will discuss learning, specifically motor learning, offering concrete suggestions on how the clinician can effectively approach the client as a teacher approaches a student. Issues of life span learning and learning as it is challenged by commonly encountered pathological conditions will also be explored. A pediatric and an adult neurorehabilitation case study offer examples on the useful application of these principles.
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It is important to differentiate among the processes of learning a skill, being trained in a skill, and performance. There is a distinction between temporary changes in performance and the relatively permanent changes that are associated with learning. Training occurs when the performer is provided with solutions to problems, such as when a therapist encourages a patient to memorize a specific set of exercise instructions or when a teacher provides a student with the correct answer to a specific question. Training often results in short-term performance capabilities. Performance is defined as a temporary change in behavior readily observable during practice sessions. Learning, on the other hand, occurs when the performer is encouraged to develop solutions to encountered problems (Fredericks & Saladin, 1996). When learning has occurred, the learner demonstrates the ability to actively problem solve and derive the solution in a variety of circumstances. Although training is appropriate in many therapeutic intervention situations, most therapeutic intervention should focus on learning.
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Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in the capability for responding that occurs as a result of practice or experience ...