Identifying MSK Movement Faults and Linked Impairments through ATu’s Ortho App (February 2026)

Missing Pieces: Teaching Students to Identify Movement Faults and Associated Impairments

We’ve all seen it happen in the classroom: a student conducts a thorough physical exam, identifies a few positive findings early on, and then develops tunnel vision. They lock onto a diagnosis and rush through the rest of their assessment, missing critical pieces of the puzzle. When we ask them about movement patterns or associated impairments, they look at us blankly. “But I already know what it is,” they say.

This laser focus on symptoms while overlooking the underlying causes represents one of the most persistent challenges in orthopedic education. Students learn to identify pathologies, but they often struggle to think globally about how the body compensates, adapts, and develops movement faults in response to injury or impairment. It’s the difference between cutting the wires to a fire alarm and actually understanding how the fire started in the first place.

That’s exactly why we designed ATu’s Orthopedics app to intentionally guide students through the process of identifying movement faults and associated impairments across every body region. In our latest faculty webinar, we explored how these often-overlooked elements can transform clinical reasoning and ultimately lead to better treatment outcomes.

Understanding the Framework

Before diving into the practical applications, it’s important to distinguish between two interconnected but distinct concepts that students often confuse: movement faults and associated impairments.

Movement faults are observable deviations from optimal movement patterns during functional activities. They’re the “how”—the visible compensations we can watch a patient perform. When someone with anterior knee pain squats and their knee collapses inward, that excessive femoral adduction and internal rotation is a movement fault. It’s what we see happening.

Associated impairments, on the other hand, are measurable limitations in physiological systems. They’re the “what”—quantifiable deficits in strength, mobility, or coordination that contribute to those faulty patterns. Gluteus medius weakness, hamstring tightness, or proprioceptive deficits are all examples of associated impairments. These are the underlying factors we can measure through specific assessment procedures.

The relationship between these two concepts is crucial for clinical reasoning. Associated impairments often drive movement faults, but movement faults can also perpetuate or worsen impairments over time. Teaching students to recognize both elements and understand their connections helps them develop the kind of comprehensive clinical thinking that leads to effective treatment planning.

Organizing Content by Pathology

Within the Orthopedics app, we’ve organized this content in a way that mirrors how clinicians actually think through differential diagnosis. Rather than presenting movement faults and impairments in isolation, we connect them directly to specific pathologies like patellofemoral pain syndrome, shoulder impingement, or ankle instability.

Each pathology includes clinical reasoning videos that provide students with a conceptual framework before they dive into specific assessment procedures. These short videos—typically under a minute—give students that essential 30,000-foot view of what they should be looking for and why it matters. When students watch a 47-second overview explaining how gluteus medius weakness contributes to excessive knee valgus in patellofemoral pain syndrome, they’re priming their brains to make those connections during hands-on practice.

Beyond the videos, each pathology section includes organized assessment procedures for both movement faults and associated impairments. Students can work through lower extremity mobility assessments, muscle strength testing, and balance evaluations—all contextualized within the specific diagnosis they’re studying. This organization helps students avoid the common pitfall of learning assessment techniques in isolation without understanding their clinical relevance.

We’ve also included pre-made worksheets for each pathology that guide students through the entire clinical reasoning process. These downloadable, editable resources ask students to watch specific videos, identify key movement faults, and list associated impairments before they ever step into the lab. This preparation transforms class time from passive information delivery into active skill development and application.

Multiple Integration Methods for Faculty

The beauty of this approach is its flexibility. We recognize that faculty have different teaching styles, course structures, and student preparation levels. That’s why we’ve designed multiple ways to integrate this content into your curriculum.

For in-class activities, you might pull up the signs and symptoms list for a body region—say, anterior knee pain—and facilitate a brainstorming session. What compensations might patients develop? What muscles might be weak? What structures might be tight? This approach activates prior knowledge and gets students thinking critically before you show them the structured content.

For more prepared students, you can use the hyperlinked presentations feature. Every video in the suite includes one-click educator tools that copy the page title with an embedded link. Drop these into your PowerPoint presentations, and when you reach that slide during class, one click brings up the video. No fumbling with multiple browser tabs or switching between applications.

For pre-class preparation, the downloadable worksheets create accountability and ensure students arrive ready to engage. When students have already watched the clinical reasoning videos and identified key movement faults before lab, you can spend your valuable face-to-face time on hands-on practice, correction, and deeper discussion rather than basic content delivery.

Even the Quick Access reference lists serve a purpose for novice learners who aren’t yet ready for the integrated, pathology-based approach. These students can explore all movement faults or associated impairments for a body region, building their observational vocabulary before connecting those observations to specific diagnoses.

Strengthening Clinical Reasoning Through Connection

Ultimately, teaching students to identify movement faults and associated impairments isn’t just about adding more items to their assessment checklist. It’s about fundamentally changing how they approach patient care—helping them see beyond the immediate symptoms to understand the complex interplay of factors contributing to injury and dysfunction.

When students learn to think about the kinetic chain and regional interdependence, they begin asking better questions. Is this anterior knee pain really a knee problem, or is it driven by hip weakness and ankle mobility restrictions? Should treatment focus solely on the painful tissue, or should it address the movement faults and impairments that led to tissue stress in the first place?

These are the questions that separate competent clinicians from exceptional ones. By embedding movement fault and associated impairment content directly within each pathology in the Orthopedics app, we’re helping students develop this kind of global, systems-based thinking from the very beginning of their education.

The missing pieces are no longer missing. They’re integrated, accessible, and ready to transform how your students think about orthopedic assessment and intervention. We invite you to explore these resources, try them in your teaching, and let us know how they work for you and your students.

Because when we help students see the complete picture—not just the symptoms but the underlying causes and resulting adaptations—we’re preparing them to truly solve the puzzle that is every patient they’ll encounter throughout their careers.