Presenter:
Gordon Muir Giles, Dip COT, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
Professor
Department of Occupational Therapy
Samuel Merritt University
EARN: .15 AOTA CEUs (1.88 NBCOT PDUs/1.5 contact hours)
Description:
The Neurofunctional approach is a client centered and evidence based type of skill and habit training. The approach was created in the 1980's by Dr. Giles and Jo Clark-Wilson when there was little available for the rehabilitation of individuals with traumatic brain injury.
This course highlights the specific process for applying the neurofunctional approach and discusses the behaviors that can be developed within the client through its use. Interventions are intended to be relevant and work toward the real life goals of the individuals who are participating in the training. But as the course points out, it is important to understand the limitations to learning that are imposed by the brain injury or cognitive impairment on the client. The NFA assumes that the client in unable to independently generate the strategies required to develop a particular area of skill, so will work with the practitioner to co-develop of a set of strategies to overcome a set of problems.
This approach can be used across the lifespan and across various diagnoses and is distinct from approaches employed by those in other professions due to the focus on functional performance and client centerd intervention.
Learning objectives:
Following this course the participant will:
1) Identify the appropriate target population for NFA Intervention
2) Identify the requirements for NFA administration
3) Describe the characteristics of the tasks that can be trained
4) Discuss the NFA evidence base
5) Identify the NFA process
6) Describe the nature of the behaviors that can become automatic using the NFA
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