NDTA™ Certificate courses are postgraduate continuing education courses offered to Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Speech-Language Pathologists who work with adults or children with movement disorders associated with neuromuscular impairments.

The Certificate Course core curriculum includes didactic information informed by current evidence, hands-on lab work in which participants practice problem-solving and application of intervention strategies, treatment demonstrations by instructors, and mentored clinical practice in which participants work with a variety of clients.

Instruction in the Contemporary Practice of NDT as an interdisciplinary team approach assures that all therapists learn to address each client using a holistic approach. All therapists, regardless of discipline, cover the same course material. Throughout the course, participants assess and treat clients with neuromuscular disorders to gain a thorough understanding of each individual’s underlying posture and movement impairments and the resultant functional consequences. This provides them with the opportunity to understand the “whole” client in order to develop basic handling skills.

Participants must meet attendance requirements, successfully achieve course objectives, perform effective assessments, develop appropriate intervention strategies, plan and implement effective treatment plans, and successfully pass the standardized final exam and competencies. Once accomplished, an NDTA™ Certificate of Completion is awarded.

Upon completion of this certificate course the participants will be able to:

• Describe and distinguish the key components of the NDTA Practice Model.
• Apply the ICF model in the assessment of clients recovering from stroke or brain injury.
• Analyze effective and ineffective components of posture and movement throughout the body segments in a variety of client presentations, including individuals presenting with; high tone, low tone, contraversive pushing behaviors, ataxia and the individual who is extremely low functioning.
• Compare and predict the interrelationships between function, posture and movement components, and system integrities and impairments in a variety of presentations of individuals with neuromuscular disorders.
• Establish the most significant impairments interfering with function, posture and movement components in individuals post stroke or brain injury.
• Demonstrate and integrate effective NDT clinical reasoning and problem solving, using assessment findings to design sequenced, progressive and goal-oriented treatment plans.
• Integrate knowledge of neuroplasticity, motor learning, and functional performance when developing efficient treatment plans.
• Analyze the components of functional activities in standing and normal gait and identify common gait deviations of individuals post stroke and brain injury that interfere with efficient, safe ambulation.
• Develop a sequence of treatment activities to enhance efficient functioning in standing and gait.
• Describe and examine the basic functional anatomy and kinesiological components of the head, trunk, upper and lower extremity.
• Develop and demonstrate a sequence of treatment activities utilizing closed chain, modified chain, and open chained strategies as appropriate, in preparation for safe use of the UE in functional activities and contexts.
• Develop and implement therapeutic handling strategies that address multiple impairments simultaneously, including the trunk, lower and upper extremities in functional tasks, resulting in functional changes in the client at the activity and participation level.
• Demonstrate the ability to integrate the course concepts and make informed intervention choices in functional activities and contexts that are meaningful to and engage the client.
• Design, implement, model and adapt therapeutic handling strategies that address clients’ most significant impairments and result in sustainable changes in the client, including improved sensorimotor performance, achievement of functional goals, and enhanced participation in meaningful activities.