What is apraxia – Definition and Description?

What is apraxia: definition and description? Apraxia is neurological disorder arising from disease or injury to the brain. A patient with apraxia loses their ability to execute certain motor movements such as licking the lips or dressing. The patient will know how to do these tasks, and want to do them, but because of the damage to the brain, they will be unable to do them.

What is apraxia: definition and description?

There are several different types of apraxia. Very mild forms of apraxia are called dyspraxia, but some people have very severe forms of apraxia, which can make their daily lives extremely difficult. The different types of apraxia can occur independently, or together. Patients with apraxia may also have aphasia—a language disorder.

• Buccofacial or orofacial apraxia: affects and limits facial movements and causes an inability to perform tasks such as whistling, coughing, licking lips, or winking. This is by far the most common form of apraxia.
• Verbal apraxia: problems coordinating mouth movements and speech. This is another fairly common form of apraxia and is typically diagnosed in childhood when the child has problems with coordinating mouth movements to form words, or their speech fails to develop at the appropriate age.
• Limb-kinetic apraxia: inability to make fine motor movements with arms or legs.
• Ideomotor apraxia: inability to make the correct physical response in to verbal commands. This form of apraxia is usually caused by lesions in the language part of the brain and patients with ideomotor apraxia usually have aphasia as well.
• Ideational apraxia: inability to perform sequential activities requiring multiple movements, for example preparing a meal or getting dressed. This type of apraxia is most often associated with dementia patients.
• Constructional apraxia: inability to construct figures, make drawings or copy pictures. This type of apraxia has been linked to hepatic encephalopathy.
• Oculamotor apraxia: problems moving the eyes on command.
• What is apraxia – definition and description of verbal apraxia of speech?
• Childhood apraxia of speech often occurs in conjunction with oral apraxia and limb apraxia and the child will have difficulties finding the right mouth movement to articulate words. They will also have problems with longer words and phrases due to issues with coordination and motor planning.
• Acquired apraxia of speech can occur in adults and children and causes a loss of speech in patients who previously had some levels of speaking ability. This type of apraxia is most commonly the result of a stroke, brain tumour, or other type of brain injury of neurological disease.

What is the prognosis and treatment for apraxia?

The prognosis for patients with apraxia will vary considerably. In some cases the apraxia is a symptom of an underlying disease or disorder and there is scope for treatment and improvement, but in most cases there are no types of drugs available for the treatment of apraxia and the only treatment options are occupational therapy, physical therapy, play therapy, music therapy, and speech therapy. With the aid of therapy, some patients will show a marked improvement, but others will show no improvement at all due to their inability to follow verbal instructions.