Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS)
Welcome!
We are very excited about the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills. Its development now spans 2 decades, and has been supported by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation and Association and the National Institutes on Aging. AMPS courses have been offered in 25 countries around the world. The AMPS represents a revolutionary and very innovative approach to the problem of how occupational therapists conceptualize and assess function. It is different from any assessment you have encountered in the past, and we are sure that you will share our enthusiasm that a valid, reliable, and sensitive assessment of occupational performance is now available.
What is the AMPS?
The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) offers a new way of thinking about and evaluating ADL task performance. In its broadest conceptualization, the AMPS offers a systematic way of examining the transaction between the person, the ADL task, and the environment, and evaluating the quality of a person's ADL task performance, measured at the level of activity and participation and not underlying body functions, person factors, or environmental factors that may limit ADL task performance (Fisher, 2006, 2009; World Health Organization, 2001).
The AMPS is an innovative observational assessment that is used to measure the quality of a person's activities of daily living (ADL). The quality of the person's ADL performance is assessed by rating the effort, efficiency, safety, and independence of 16 ADL motor and 20 ADL process skill items, while the person is doing chosen, familiar, and life-relevant ADL tasks. There are more than 100 standardized ADL tasks.
The ADL motor and ADL process skills are analogous to the goal-directed actions defined under the Activities and Participation domains of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (World Health Organization [WHO], 2001), and are thus the small units of performance that when carried out, one by one, result in the overall task being completed.
- More specifically, within the context of performing chosen, familiar, and life-relevant ADL tasks:
- ADL motor skills are test items used to rate the level of skill observed when one moves oneself or task objects.
- ADL process skills are test items used to rate the level of skill observed when one (a) selects, interacts with, and uses tools and materials, (b) carries out individual actions and steps, and (c) modifies performance when problems are encountered.
For example, as people prepare jam sandwiches, some of the actions they must carry out include: (a) walk to the cupboard, (b) find and select the correct bread (search/locate, choose), (c) reach for, grasp (grip), and lift the bag of bread, (d) transport the bread to their workspace, (f) effectively hold and open the bread by removing the twist tie (handle, manipulate, coordinate), (g) initiate the next step of putting jam on the bread, (h) spread the jam with an appropriate amount of force so that the bread does not tear or crush (calibrate), (j) use a knife (not a spoon) to cut the sandwich, and (k) clean up the workspace (restore).
Who can administer and score an AMPS evaluation?
- The AMPS is an ideal tool for occupational therapists who:
- have clients 2 years old and above.
- are looking for a valid and reliable assessment of the quality of a person's ADL performance.
- need to demonstrate effectiveness of intervention strategies.
This page was last modified on 10 January 2012
