abstract
- Occupational therapists providing treatment of persons with central nervous system (CNS) impairments now embrace a motor control approach based on principles of strength training and practice of meaningful occupations. This paper describes the Framework of Occupational Gradation (FOG), which was developed to assist occupational therapists to systematically challenge upper extremity function by manipulating the degrees of freedom of active motion in a person's extremity. Clients may be able to perform occupations under several or all levels within the framework. However, the person, task, or object properties and the environment can also be manipulated by the occupational therapist to optimize or challenge a person's performance at each level. Application of the FOG is presented through case studies.