Adaptive potential

Scientific basis

Postural control strategies depend on the person's capacities, on sensory information and on the conditions of the task. Certain changes in posture or rotations of the pelvis alter the distribution of seated pressure. These observations neither define nor directly validate “adaptive potential.”

Blue Portance / SBNFA™ reading

In the SBNFA™, adaptive potential refers to the possibilities offered by the interaction between the person, the task and the environment. It is analyzed through freedom of movement, dynamic stability, the capacity to adjust and redistribute stress, and the variation of the points of support. “Postural potential” is a derivation of it focused on the body configurations and states of balance that are accessible. This conceptual architecture belongs to Blue Portance.

Contribution to the analysis of sitting

The support surface can influence the points of support and the posture changes that are possible; the person's capacities and needs also matter. The analysis looks for several balance configurations that can be stabilized and for degrees of freedom that are actually usable, without inferring the potential from the mobility of the seat alone.

Not to be confused with

Adaptability, the general principle of the framework that links postural and tissue adjustments; adaptive reserve, the functional margin the body has for changing its organization, which evolves slowly with its loading history. Adaptive potential depends both on this reserve and on the situation: a static, unchanging sitting posture can reduce the available potential without depleting the reserve; a diminished reserve limits the potential, whatever the situation.

Related terms

Adaptive reserve

Sources and scope

• Horak (2006): postural orientation and equilibrium
• Moes (2007): pelvic rotation and the distribution of seated pressure