Attend a 5 day training course and perform the assessment on 10 qualifying people to complete calibration.

When giving an AMPS assessment, you will need the AMPS manuals and computer-scoring software.
There is no additional charge for these tools. The costs of the manual and software are included in the course fee.

The AMPS is the only standardized assessment designed to evaluate the quality of a person's ADL task performances. Evidence of increased effort, decreased efficiency, decreased safety, or decreased independence of individual goal-directed task actions (the ADL motor and ADL process skill items) that affect the overall effectiveness of ADL task performances is considered in the scoring of the AMPS. Because it is standardized, the OT practitioner can use it to objectively document the effectiveness of OT interventions.

Occupational therapy practitioners who:

have clients older than 2 years old.

are looking for a valid and reliable assessment of functional performance.

need to demonstrate effectiveness of intervention strategies.

are frustrated with the ADL assessments they currently are using.

According to AOTA recommended guidelines, COTAs may administer standardized ADL assessments under the supervision of an OTR. The ability to supervise requires that the OTR have background information related to the AMPS and/or consult with an OTR who has been trained and calibrated in the use of the AMPS. As with all assessment tools the COTA administers, service competency needs to be established between the COTA and the supervising OTR.

Yes. Each hour of a training course provides important information, hands-on experience, and training from AMPS faculty and instructors. A variety of course dates and locations are offered to accommodate for individual schedules. If someone is interested in hosting a course to fit a specific schedule or location, please contact the AMPS at info@AMPSintl.com.

"The foundation for the AMPS originated in psychiatry, specifically for use with people with schizophrenia and depression (for this, Susan Doble, Halifax, Canada should be given credit). The basic idea behind the AMPS was to develop a tool that enabled people to perform familiar tasks, and allowed them to choose which ones they would perform, so as to support their motivation and engagement in their task performances. The AMPS has since been developed to be used in all areas of occupational therapy practice and with all diagnostic and age groups."

Follow this link to download a full discussion about strengths and challenges related to using the AMPS in mental health practice, "A critique of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) in mental health practice" and commentaries and responses to this.

If the person is well enough to engage in at least two (appropriately challenging) AMPS tasks, then the evaluation is valid. For rater calibration purposes, make sure that you enter into your software all relevant diagnoses (see notes in 'AMPS Diagnostic Categories' in Volume 2 of your AMPS manual) and that you appropriately mark the person's AMPS functional level ('Functional Level rating Criteria' in Volume 2) and quality of performance ratings ('Quality of Client's Performance' in Volume 2).

An AMPS observation involves having each person evaluated perform two or three personal or domestic ADL tasks that the person has had prior experience performing (e.g., pouring a glass of juice; making a bed; preparing eggs, toast, and coffee, vacuuming the floor; ironing a shirt; getting dressed). From among a subset of culturally relevant and appropriately challenging ADL tasks, the person chooses which tasks to perform. The assessment requires no special equipment and can be administered in any relevant setting within a 30 to 40 minute period.

The process of standardizing and calibrating ADL tasks for inclusion in the AMPS would begin with an e-mail to the AMPS Project International (info@ampsintl.com) with a proposed new task description. Each new task must have a task description similar to those already standardized and calibrated (see 'Task Descriptions', Volume 2 of the AMPS Manual) The next phases include data collection and data analysis. Finally, when new software is developed the new task is available for use by all calibrated AMPS raters. You will notice that Version 9 of the AMPS computer-scoring software contains new ADL tasks that were recently standardized and calibrated.

Yes. Please review the AMPS Manual (7th edition), Volume 1, Section 13-7, "Establishing the Task-specific Client-Centered Performance Context with Persons Who Have Never Performed AMPS Tasks”. We can give a person the opportunity to learn and practice relevant ADL tasks before implementing an AMPS observation. We can still get valid ADL ability measures for people with limited experience doing ADL tasks that they want to do.

The software does not allow a rating for Inordinate even though there is a rating of 6=Inordinate on all AMPS score forms and in Appendix B, Volume 2 of the AMPS manual. Reading the rating criteria for 6=Inordinate, we find that a person "demonstrated an extreme degree of [insert physical effort, disorganization, risk for personal injury, or assistance]; was unable to enter into an ADL task performance". If the person did not enter into the task performance, then the occupational therapist has no ADL motor or ADL process scores to enter into the software.

The Problem
The therapist does not have sufficient permission to write to the database inside the data folder. Common errors resulting from this problem are:

The record is read-only.

111 cannot update cursor...

The Solution
The computer's administrator must give the therapist's user profile permission to write to the directory in which your AMPS software is installed:

1. Logon as a network administrator
2. Using Windows Explorer, browse to the AMPS software installation directory
3. Click FILE --> PROPERTIES
4. From the Properties window, select the Security tab.
5. In the Group or user names: area, highlight Users.
6. In the Permissions for users: area, click the box to Allow / Write.
7. Click OK.
8. Logoff as administrator.

Write info@AMPSintl.com with questions.

When an occupational therapist exports his or her data, anonymous data about the person and AMPS observation are encoded and saved to data files. Data in those files include:
• Age
• Gender
• AMPS diagnostic categories
• AMPS functional level rating (a 3-level rating scale)
• Evaluation data (observation date, task codes, item scores, and overall quality of performance ratings)

The Problem
The therapist does not have sufficient permission to write to the database inside the data folder. Common errors resulting from this problem are:

The record is read-only.

111 cannot update cursor...

The Solution
The computer's administrator must give the therapist's user profile permission to write to the directory in which your AMPS software is installed:

1. Logon as a network administrator
2. Using Windows Explorer, browse to the AMPS software installation directory
3. Click FILE --> PROPERTIES
4. From the Properties window, select the Security tab.
5. In the Group or user names: area, highlight Users.
6. In the Permissions for users: area, click the box to Allow / Write.
7. Click OK.
8. Logoff as administrator.

Write info@AMPSintl.com with questions.

No. In order to use a newer version of the software, each therapist much purchase his/her own license (passcode). Please read our upgrade policy and visit our online store to purchase a software upgrade.

Therapists cannot share passcodes because the AMPS computer-scoring software adjusts each client's ADL motor and ADL process ability measure for the challenge of tasks performed as well as the severity of AMPS rater who scored the individual skill items. Therefore, the use of another therapist's software invalidates resulting ability measures if the test was administered and scored by a different therapist. Sharing her passcode not only invalidates evaluations administered by you or another therapist, but it is in violation of client confidentiality regulations.

AMPS software is developed for Windows operating systems only. There are ways for Linux and Macintosh users to run Windows software on their computers. Contact your local IT person for options. However, we recommend that you install the AMPS software to a Windows-based computer. Course handouts will help with installation and using AMPS software.

Reports are prepared by the AMPS computer-scoring software, but the final layout of the report is generated by a print driver. Printing requires a specific print driver to communicate between the workstation's operating system and the printer (e.g., only one specific print driver works for Windows XP Professional and the HP Deskjet 720c). The operating system of the computer with the printer attached must be configured to use the print driver specific to the exact model of the printer and the workstation operating system that is generating the report.

If the problem persists after installing the correct print driver and ensuring accurate mapping of a networked printer, there are two recommended courses of action:

1. Change the print quality to the highest quality under Print Preferences. (known to resolve the problem with some HP printers)
   
2. Save your report in a portable digital format (PDF). Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view and/or print AMPS PDF reports.

Note: Only therapists with Version 2005 or later of the AMPS computer-scoring software can save reports in a PDF file.

There are two issues that commonly create data entry problems for the Date. First, the software may be expecting the date to be entered in a format different from your preferred format. Second, your computer clock may not be accurate.

1. The software offers three Date Formats, but regardless of the format used, Month and Day must always be entered as 2-digit, Year must always be entered as 4-digits.
   
   MM/DD/YYYY (Month, Day, Year)
   DD/MM/YYYY (Day, Month, Year)
   YYYY/MM/DD (Year, Month, Day)
   
   Your personal preferred Date Format must be selected in the program's Preferences:
   - Login to your software
   - Click Preferences
   - Select your preferred Date Format from the drop-down menu
   


2. Check that your computer's internal clock and Windows date are accurate. The software does not allow you to enter a future date. To verify that your computer's date is correct, open Date & Time from your Windows Control Panel.

The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills now includes 102 tasks. Some new tasks (e.g., I-19. Meatballs with boiled potatoes) have been researched and calibrated since your version of the AMPS computer-scoring software was developed. Visit the AMPS Software resource page for details.

The Problem
The error most commonly occurs because the destination disk is unavailable. Check that the disk being used to export is inserted properly, has sufficient space (AMPS Project International recommends you use a clean floppy disk for data export or backup), and that the disk is not 'write-protected'.

A known bug in AMPS 2002 occurs when two conditions are met:
(a) AMPS 2002 has been installed on a computer running the Windows NT operating system
(b) the therapist is exporting data for the purposes of rater calibration.

The Solution
AMPS 2002 was developed more than 8 years ago and is no longer the current version of the AMPS computer-scoring software. Please visit the AMPS Software resource page for details.

The Problem
The computer's processing speeds are too fast for the software. The AMPS computer-scoring software, AMPS 3.0, is more than ten years old. Some new computers process data faster than the software can handle.

What can I do?
The AMPS Project recommends that all AMPS-trained therapists remain current with AMPS materials and practices. By staying current with the latest software, a therapist is able to download free updates of the current version of the AMPS computer-scoring software, and receive discounts on future releases of new versions. Visit the AMPS Software resource page for details.

The AMPS computer-scoring software, Version 3.0 (and Version 1.1) were designed for older operating systems, and are no longer supported. Therapists may experience problems when using these programs on new computer operating systems.

The AMPS computer-scoring software program has since undergone multiple significant upgrade revisions to remain current with new computer operating systems and updates to the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills as an evaluation tool. Therapists who have not stayed current with the AMPS materials and current practices will be required to take a new course before upgrading to the new software.