Assessment
The following pages provide information on a number of assessments of apraxia that would be useful in OT practice, including non-standardized, diagnosis-focused, and function-focused assessments. Assessment will allow you to determine your client's baseline performance prior to intervention, which will inform your intervention and allow you to monitor progress.
Please note the following:
Please note the following:
- There are many assessments of apraxia that were developed as research tools, so are not clinically relevant (Gillen, 2009; Dovern, Fink, & Weiss, 2012).
- According to Gillen (2009), assessment of apraxia is done in one of two ways: it is either impairment/diagnosis-focused or it focuses on how apraxia affects skills of everyday living.
- "The problem with determining apraxia by structured testing in isolation, is that there may not be strong correlations between formal test results and occupational performance tasks that are important to the individual" (Landry & Spaulding, 1999, p.58).
- Gillen suggests that "from a rehabilitation perspective, the focus of assessment should be on determining if/how the presence of apraxia interferes with a person’s ability to perform basic self-care, instrumental activities of daily living, work, and play/ leisure abilities" (2009, p.121). Please refer to the "ADL-focused" page for more assessments.