This is a lecture course designed to present students with a theoretical model to enhance examination and intervention that can be used regardless of the type of disease, impairment, functional limitation, or disability. The course is guided by the concept that in order to treat dysfunction, it is necessary to understand motor control and coordination processes. The relation between these processes and the individual's functional anatomy, biomechanics, and surrounding environment will be described. The basic systems requirements proposed by Bernstein for an adequate motor control theory will be used as a way to critique theories currently used as a basis for physical therapy, and to introduce the concepts of system constraints and of dynamical systems theory. The ways in which the constraints/dynamics approach can be incorporated into the disablement model adopted by the APTA in its clinical practice guidelines will also be identified, and normal age-specific processes across the lifespan will be described. The manner in which this approach can provide tools for developing hypotheses on relations between impairments and function limitations for guiding therapeutic intervention will be identified. The results will allow the student to gain insight into how to conceptualize a holistic model of the factors that influence the patient's behavior, identify causes of problems, and learn a thought process for examination and intervention.