Dynamic performance analysis: A framework for understanding occupational performance

Occupational therapy is now consistently described as a profession concerned with enabling occupation. A crucial step in enabling occupation is understanding the occupational performance of our clients. Dynamic Performance Analysis (DPA) is a new approach to occupational analysis that focuses on the client's actual performance. DPA, acknowledging that optimal performance is the product of the interaction of person, environment and occupation, and thus highly individualistic places the client and his or her occupation, in interaction with the environment at the center of the analysis process. Embedded in a top-down framework, DPA is a dynamic iterative process, carried out as the client performs the occupation. The purpose of DPA is to identify where performance breaks clown and test out solutions. In this article, the rationale, origins, and basic assumptions of DPA are discussed, and a detailed description of the DPA process together with two clinical examples is presented.