1. School Version of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills
(School AMPS)
The School AMPS is an occupational therapy assessment tool that reflects the unique contribution that occupational therapists bring to schools: an occupation-centered perspective on students’ occupation (i.e., the things that they do) to fully participate in their school settings.

2. Schoolwork Task Performance
The School AMPS is an observation-based assessment used to measure a student’s quality of performance. When the School AMPS is administered, the occupational therapist observes the student in the natural classroom setting, doing schoolwork tasks assigned by the teacher.

3. Standardization sample
3 to 15 years of age Any diagnosis
The School AMPS has been standardized on more than 9300 students internationally: 3 to 15 years old, boys and girls, with a wide variety of disabilities – including children with no diagnosis or disability.

4. Administration
The School AMPS administration begins with a teacher interview to learn about the student from teacher’s perspective. The occupational therapist then observes the student do two schoolwork tasks identified by the teacher to be challenging for the student.

5. Schoolwork Tasks Pencil/pen writing Drawing & coloring
Cutting & pasting
Computer
Math manipulative
The School AMPS includes 27 schoolwork that are the common to observe in preschool and elementary or primary classroom settings: Pencil/pen writing, Drawing & coloring, Cutting & pasting, Computer tasks such as writing, creating a presentation, or creating a graphic design, and using small objects (e.g., “manipulatives”) to complete math tasks. The School AMPS tasks are also applicable to older students with disabilities.

6. Schoolwork Tasks
We never remove the student from his or her classroom for a School AMPS observation. Also, we never observe the student before interviewing the teacher. We must find out from the teacher what schoolwork tasks (a) present a challenge to the student and (b) match standardized criteria in the manual as a School AMPS task.

7. Standardization School AMPS task description defines
The essential goal of the task
Materials that may be used
That is, for a schoolwork task to be observed as a School AMPS task, the schoolwork task must meet certain criteria. School AMPS task descriptions in the manual describe what are a) the essential goal of the task and b) the specific tools and materials that may be used.

8. Standardization School AMPS task DC-2 Coloring shapes and spaces
Color designs or pictures that have been predrawn on paper
Colored pencils, crayons, or markers
For example, Task DC-2, Coloring shapes and spaces is defined by its essential goal: “This task involves using crayons, markers, or colored pencils to color (fill in) designs or pictures that have been predrawn on paper.”
In order to “qualify” as a School AMPS tasks, students must be asked to color pictures or designs that have been predrawn, such as a coloring page or a page in a workbook.
It remains a School AMPS task if the teacher asks the students to use colored pencils, crayons, or markers.

9. Culture-Specific Assessment
Tasks are familiar and accord with the
Specific classroom culture
Teacher expectations
Broader cultural influences of the world region
According to the standardized procedures in the School AMPS manual, students are observed performing schoolwork tasks that are familiar and done according to the specific cultural influences of the classroom. This allows the School AMPS to be an assessment that is both culture-specific, yet free from cross-cultural bias.

10. Culture-Specific Assessment
School AMPS task DC-2
Coloring shapes and spaces
Color designs or pictures that have been predrawn on paper
Colored pencils, crayons, or markers
For example, a teacher in Melbourne, Australia has specified that the students are to use crayons to color a picture of a koala sitting in a gum tree. Established routines indicate that students are expected to put their names on their papers and put finished work in the box near the teacher’s desk marked, “Finished Work.”
Culture-specific assessment occurs because each student performs the task according to the cultural values of the region and the rules and expectations of the classroom teacher. These cultural influences are accounted for when the occupational therapist scores the School AMPS.

11. Conceptual Model (Fisher 2003)
Discuss the conceptual model of the School AMPS, stressing the following points:
When the School AMPS is administered, the focus is on the quality of the occupational performance – the quality of the “doing” (right side).
Characteristics of the person, the environment, and the task the student does will impact what we observe (left side). But when we score the School AMPS, we do not score aspects of the person (e.g., strength, range of motion, cognition), the environment (other students in the classroom, height of the desk, size of the crayons), or the task (complexity of the predrawn shape of the koala). As occupational therapists, we score the quality of the doing (right side). After scoring the School AMPS, we can then interpret the results by considering how aspects of the person, the environment, or the task (left side) influenced what we observed.
In school-based occupational therapy practice, it has been common for the occupational therapist to interviews the teacher to learn about what occupations are a problem for the student and then evaluate aspects of the person (e.g., fine or gross motor coordination, visual perception, sensory processing) to speculate about what body functions interfere with occupational performance (top-to-bottom-up approach).
We use the School AMPS in a top-down manner, (a) to conduct a teacher interview to identify problems of occupation, (b) observe reported problems of occupation in natural settings, and (c) lastly, consider the impact of environment, body functions, and/or the task on the quality of performance we observed.
A true top-down process enables occupational therapists to focus on the occupations a student needs and wants to do to fully participate in his or her school setting.

12. Performance Skills
The smallest units of observable action that are linked together one-by-one in the process of building a task performance
Again, the School AMPS is an evaluation of occupation (not the environment or body functions). When we administer the School AMPS, we evaluate the student’s level of skill doing his or her schoolwork tasks. More specifically, we evaluate student’s level of skill enacting the smallest, goal-directed units of performance, called Performance Skills.
If we think of a task performance as a chain, then performance skills are the individual links that must be connected together to construct the entire chain (the task).
The school motor and school process skills are the links in the chain that, when linked together, result in the entire schoolwork task being completed.

13. Performance Skills Moves crayon back and forth Grasps crayon
Alters grasp on crayon
For example, as the student colors in a picture of a koala sitting in a gum tree, she reaches for, grasps (grips) and lifts a crayon; alters her grasp on the crayon in preparation for coloring (manipulates); and applies an appropriate amount of force down on the crayon (calibrates) while she moves the crayon back and forth, applying color to the koala.
Lifts crayon
Reaches for a
crayon in the basket
Applies force,
presses down on crayon

14. School Motor Skills Body position Obtaining/holding objects
Stabilizes
Aligns
Positions
Obtaining/holding objects
Reaches
Bends
Grips
Manipulates
Coordinates
Moving self & objects
Moves
Lifts
Walks
Transports
Calibrates
Flows
Sustaining performance
Endures
Paces
School AMPS motor skills are observable, goal-directed actions the student enacts when
Interacting with and moving task objects, and
Moving oneself around the task environment

15. Performance Skills Delay to stabilize paper when coloring
Moves crayon back and forth
Starts to color koala’s ear
Grasps crayon
Alters grasp on crayon
Colors outside lines
… and the student continues to color the picture. The student starts to color the koala's ear (initiates), and colors somewhat outside the lines (notices/responds). The paper moves while she colors; she stabilizes the paper after a short delay (handles). She colors-in the ear until it is completely colored (terminates).
Lifts crayon
Colors ear until whole
ear is colored-in
Reaches for a
crayon in the basket
Applies force,
presses down on crayon

16. School Process Skills Sustaining performance Applying knowledge
Paces
Attends
Heeds
Applying knowledge
Chooses
Uses
Handles
Inquires
Temporal organization
Initiates
Continues
Sequences
Terminates
Organizing space & objects
Searches/Locates
Gathers
Organizes
Restores
Navigates
School AMPS process skills are observable, goal-directed actions the person enacts when
Selecting, interacting with, and using task tools and materials,
Carrying out individual task actions and steps, and
Modifying task performance when problems are encountered

17. School Process Skills Adapting Performance Notices/Responds Adjusts
Accommodates
Benefits
The adaptation skills are a special group of process skills and address the student’s ability to adapt his ongoing task performance, when needed.

18. Scoring Performance Skills
Each skill is scored on a 4-point scale
4 = competent performance
3 = questionable performance
2 = ineffective performance
1 = unacceptable performance
Each of the performance skills is scored on a 4-point scale, based on a criterion of competence. That is, the occupational therapist rates the quality of each of the occupational performance skills based on how much clumsiness or physical effort, time and space organization, safety risk, and/or need for assistance the student demonstrated when performing schoolwork tasks. More specifically, each School AMPS item is scored = 4 (competent, no problem), =3 (questionable, possible disruption), = 2 (ineffective, clear disruption), or = 1 (severe; unacceptable).

19. School AMPS Results School AMPS measures account for Rater severity
Task challenge
The occupational therapist then enters the item score into a computer-scoring software package to calculate linearized school motor and school process measures. School AMPS measures are adjusted by the computer for:
The severity of the rater (this is why each person who administers the School AMPS must be trained at a School AMPS workshop and be calibrated)
The challenge of the tasks that the student did (this is why the specific criteria of each task must be standardized)
You might want to mention that the computer program is based on many-faceted Rasch measurement, which allows for this sort of complexity.

20. School AMPS Motor Scale
School AMPS measures are reported in logits (log-odds probability units) and placed along two School AMPS scales: one motor and one process. Their locations along these scales indicate the level of the student’s observed quality of schoolwork task performance. The higher the student’s School AMPS measures along the respective scale, the higher was his or her observed occupational skill when performing schoolwork tasks.
The School AMPS motor scale includes a “cutoff” (2.0 logits, indicated by the red dotted line in this slide).
A school motor measure above the cutoff indicates that the student competently moved him- or herself and task objects during the performance of schoolwork tasks.
A school motor measure below the cutoff indicates that the student demonstrated some degree of increased clumsiness and/or physical effort performing schoolwork tasks.

21. School AMPS Process Scale
The School AMPS process scale also displayes a “cutoff” (1.0 logit).
A school process measure above the cutoff indicates that the student competently (a) selected, interacted with, and used task tools and materials; (b) carried out individual task actions and steps; and (c) modified task actions to prevent problems.
A school process measure below the cutoff indicates that the student demonstrated some degree of time and/or space inefficiency performing schoolwork tasks.
It is important to remember that the School AMPS is a criterion-referenced test, not a norm-referenced test. Young students may get School AMPS measures below a cutoff because developmentally they are not yet able to competently perform schoolwork tasks.
Some degree of physical effort and/or inefficiency is normal among young students!
So, we also need to compare a student’s School AMPS measures with those of his or her typically-developing peers.

22. Norm-Referenced Interpretation
Therefore, it is important to also interpret a student’s School AMPS results in relation to typically-developing students that are the same age as the student who was observed.
Approximately 95% of typically-developing, same-age students have School AMPS measures within ±2 standard deviations (SD) of the normative mean. This range (±2 SD) representing the expected variation in quality of schoolwork task performance is depicted by a vertical band to the left of the School AMPS scale. The normative mean is located in the middle of each vertical band and is represented by a dark dot. When the white arrow is within the range illustrated by the vertical band, the student's observed quality of schoolwork task performance was within ±2 SD of the mean.
This example student’s School AMPS measure was 0.0 logits and falls below the “normal range” for typically-developing 6-year-old students. The respective percentile rank (percentage of typically-developing, same-age students with lower School AMPS measures), normalized standard score, and z score also are reported in a table that is included in the student’s School AMPS Results Report. This student’s School AMPS measure was 2.0 standard deviations (SD) below the normative mean, indicating that 97.7% of typically-developing students the same age likely have a higher School AMPS measure.
School AMPS
measure
Standardized z score
Normalized
standard score
Percentile rank
0.0
-2.0 70
2.3

23. Measuring Change School AMPS measures that differ by:
Less than 0.3 logit: no change
Between 0.3–0.4 logit: observable change
At least 0.5 logit: statistically significant change
We also can use the School AMPS to measure how effective was our intervention. Did the student improve in his or her quality of schoolwork task performance after our occupational therapy intervention?
When two School AMPS measures (e.g., two school motor measures or two school process measures) differ by 0.3 logit, there likely has been an observable change in the student’s quality of schoolwork task performance. School motor and/or process measures that differ by at least 0.5 logit indicate that there likely has been a statistically significant change in the student’s quality of schoolwork task performance.

24. Case Study Introduction of student School AMPS results
Interpretation of School AMPS results
Goals
Intervention planning
It is often very useful to include a case study in your in-service. Begin by introducing the student (client-centered performance context), the tasks that were performed, etc. Share with them some of the computer-generated reports for the client, paint a picture of the client’s performance. Discuss how you interpreted the results of the School AMPS and how you used this information to develop goals, plan intervention, and assess progress.

25. Discussion & Questions
As time allows, encourage questions and discussion.