OVERVIEW OF THE CURRICULUM

The MOVE Curriculum is a top-down, activity-based curriculum designed to teach students basic, functional motor skills of sitting, standing and walking needed for life within the home and community environments. The curriculum combines natural body mechanics with an instructional process to help students acquire increasing motoric independence.

The curriculum provides a framework and a method to measure the learning of these vital motor skills. The MOVE Curriculum provides six steps for utilizing and teaching the MOVE Program, i.e. 1) Testing, 2) Setting Goals, 3) Task Analysis, 4) Measuring Prompts, 5) Reducing Prompts, and 6) Teaching Skills.    

The MOVE Curriculum is practical and allows easy documentation, goal writing and task analysis. The MOVE Curriculum also provides a foundation for parental leadership in the selection of student activities and the curriculum format helps coordinate services and the respective expertise provided by therapists, educators and non-professionals (a team approach).

To summarize, the MOVE Curriculum provides a comprehensive system for testing, setting goals and keeping records.

CONTENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 

Curriculum Foundation-Interview Parents

The foundation for the MOVE Program and Curriculum began with interviewing parents about their children's needs and analyzing the basic minimal activities necessary for functioning in the home and community. Some of these activities included:

In the home

• eating with family or peers
  
• bathing or showering
• getting in and out of bed
• dressing and grooming
• toileting
• communicating
• participating in leisure activities

In the Community

• shopping
• going to appointments (medical, dental, hair dresser or barber, etc.)
• eating in restaurants
• attending social activities indoors and out-of-doors (church, picnics, movies, etc.)
• using public restrooms
• riding on public transportation or in regular cars

Task Analysis of Activites Included in the Curriculum

Each of these activities was then task-analyzed to determine the physical skills required in order to accomplish these skills. The skills fell into 16 categories:

1. Maintaining a sitting position
2. Movement while sitting
3. Standing
4. Transition from sitting to standing
5. Transition from standing to sitting
6. Pivoting while standing
7. Walking forward
8. Transition from standing to walking
9. Transition from walking to standing
10. Walking backward
11. Turning while walking
12. Walking up steps
13. Walking down steps
14. Walking on even ground
15. Walking up slopes
16. Walking down slopes

Top-Down Model-Varying Levels of Success Outlined in the Curriculum

Each of these 16 skills was then divided into four levels of success. Each level has an immediate functional use and will serve the needs of students in adulthood. When students enter the program, they are given a top-down test developed to serve their functional needs. The test begins with the highest level of difficulty (GRAD LEVEL) and moves down a continuum of skills until the student can demonstrate proficiency. This is considered a student's entry level. The student then addresses the next highest skill on the continuum and disregards the skills below the entry level. This system guarantees that students who learn slowly are not wasting valuable time perfecting infant skills. The four levels of success are:

GRAD LEVEL- Acquisition of skills at this level assures independent mobility in the home and minimal assistance in the community. Participants who complete this level graduate from the program and can expand their motor skills through traditional programs. A wheelchair is never needed.

GRAD LEVEL I - Acquisition of skills at this level assures that no lifting of the participant by the caretaker will be required. The participant can walk with both hands held or with a walkerette for a minimum of 300 feet. A wheelchair is needed only for long distances.

GRAD LEVEL II - Acquisition of skills at this level assures that the participant will be able to walk at least 10 feet with help from another person in maintaining balance and shifting weight. Lifting is minimal due to help from the participant. A wheelchair is required for distances over 10 feet.

GRAD LEVEL IIII - Acquisition of skills at this level will improve bone health and functioning of internal organs as well as decrease the likelihood of joint deformities and pain. Three basic pieces of equipment were designed at the Blair Learning Center to be used as prompts for skill acquisition at this level. These include a front-leaning chair which allows a student to assume a forward-leaning position for table work, a mobile stander which is similar to a wheelchair but places the student in a standing rather than a sitting position, and a front-leaning walker which allows an instructor to teach reciprocal leg movements without having to support the student. These pieces of equipment are now being manufactured by the Rifton Manufacturing Company and are available worldwide.

Measuring Prompts (Support) Needed and Reducing Prompts (Support) Needed
 
The existing skills of the students are improved by selecting the next higher skill from the top-down test and determining exactly how much prompting the student needs to accomplish that skill. Two categories of prompts are described in detail in the MOVE Curriculum. One category is for learning to maintain sitting balance and the other is for learning to stand and walk. These prompts are given numerical values ranging from independent functioning (0) to the greatest degree of assistance (5).

By using a simple chart in the curriculum, the instructor/support provider can see which areas require the greatest degree of assistance and then systematically reduce that assistance.

OVERVIEW OF THE MOVE ASSESSMENT PROFILE FOR CHILDREN 

The MOVE Assessment Profile for children is a workbook used in conjunction with the MOVE Curriculum for children to set up a program and document progress over time with a student using the MOVE Program.

Included in the MOVE Assessment Profile for children are directions to guide one through the six steps of the MOVE Program, with actvitiy sheets to fill in as one uses the profile. There is a detailed action plan for teaching motor skills most critical to the student.  

This overview of the MOVE Assessment Profile is an excerpt of the profile and the MOVE Curriculum. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for the complete MOVE Assessment Profile and the MOVE Curriculum.

Download Overview of the MOVE Assessment Profile