Introduction

When incorporating motor learning principles into clinical practice, physiotherapists create practice schedules and provide appropriate feedback in order to enhance learning. While these factors can have a significant impact on learning, current theories of motor learning have not considered the role that motivation and attention can play in skill acquisition. Gabriele Wulf and Rebecca Lewthwaite, therefore, developed the OPTIMAL Theory of Motor Learning to explore ways of harnessing a patient's motivation. In this course, Teresa Bisson introduces this theory and explores how it can be incorporated into physiotherapy practice. This course follows on the Motor Learning - Back to the Basics course.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course you will be able to:

• evaluate the roles of enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and external focus of attention on a client’s motor performance and learning
• summarise key research related to optimising a client’s capacity for motor learning and skill refinement / acquisition
• discuss self-efficacy and its impact on performance and motor learning
• choose appropriate cues / strategies to enhance expectations, autonomy support and external focus of attention in relation to specific case studies

Target audience

This course is aimed at Physiotherapy and Physical Therapy clinicians, students and assistants. Other interested professionals such as athletic trainers, occupational therapists, nurses or medical doctors interested in this subject are also invited to participate.

Practicalities

• Availability - this course is online and can be completed on your own schedule.
• Hours of Learning - No deadlines are applied to this course and it can be started and completed in your own time according to your personal schedule. We expect the required elements to take around 1.5-2 hours depending on your schedule and learning style. Additionally there are many optional resources provided and if you choose to review these the course could take longer to complete.
• Types of Activities - This course includes instructional and/or practical videos, reading activities, AI supported learning activities, reflection, evaluation forms, a quiz and additional resources.
• Certificates - At the end of the course, when you have completed all of the required elements, you will be able to download a certificate of completion and 1.3 Plus points will be added to your personalised learning dashboard.

Instructor financial and non-financial disclosures

No relevant relationships disclosed by instructor.

Accessibility and Non-Discrimination Policy

Physiopedia Plus is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible learning environment for all participants. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, national origin, religion, sex, disability, military status, sexual orientation or age in any aspect of our continuing education services. We are dedicated to ensuring that all learners can fully participate in our programmes. Participants who require accommodations or have special needs are encouraged to contact us with details so that we can make all reasonable efforts to meet these requirements.