III STEP is the third in a series of retreat (summer institute) conferences that have spanned nearly four decades. The first STEP conference, the Northwestern University Special Therapeutic Exercise Project (NUSTEP), was a 4-week retreat held in Chicago in 1966. NUSTEP brought together basic scientists, physical therapy clinicians, and educators to determine how behavioral objectives and curriculum content could be improved to enhance physical therapy education. Participants included 114 physical therapy faculty from the United States and Canada. Forty-four US physical therapy training programs were represented. The planning committee considered four areas of content to be the foundation for the institute: neurophysiology, motor development, motor learning and motor control. The proceedings from NUSTEP were published as a special issue of the American Journal of Physical Medicine in February, 1967 and were used within some universities well into the 1980’s.

Twenty-four years later (1990), a second STEP conference was held in Norman, Oklahoma. II STEP was conceived and organized by members of the Neurology Section and Section on Pediatrics of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). The retreat focused on the contemporary management of motor control problems. Over 500 physical therapists participated, the majority of whom attended as physical therapy educator – clinician teams. These teams worked together to influence the education and clinical reasoning skills of their respective students. Although the four areas of content used for NUSTEP remained a major focus, the critical theme of II STEP was the integration of current theories of practice with movement science research.

II STEP facilitated huge conceptual leaps among Physical Therapy educators and clinicians and led to profound changes in the training of future physical therapists. The science of neurophysiology and motor control had shifted from a Sherrington hierarchical reflex model to a Bernstein systems’ model. The clinical rationale for evaluation and intervention evolved from master clinician observations to findings based on the science of learning, adaptation, and change. New models for practice were described, which helped to clearly differentiate physical therapists’ focus on the management of functional limitations and subsystem impairments from physicians’ focus on pathology. During the 1990’s, the II STEP proceedings became a standard textbook within many universities in the U.S. and Canada. All profits were donated to the Foundation for Physical Therapy, Inc., to support future physical therapy research.

The need for a III STEP conference was inevitable. Recent advances in neuroscience, motor learning and control, multiple system interactions, genetics and evidence-based medicine will produce an evolution in physical therapy education and practice. Once again, members from the Section on Pediatrics and the Neurology Section are organizing this third summer institute to foster, guide, and influence this evolution by promoting face-to-face interactions and dialog between basic scientists, movement scientists, educators, and clinicians dedicated to advancing the profession. Like its predecessors, III STEP promises to provide a major stimulus for the growth of physical therapy research and practice for years to come.

Join Us for III STEP!