WHAT ARE THE PRAXIS AND WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
Praxis is the motor skills we acquire. In other words, it is the organized movement that we perform to execute a plan or achieve a goal.
Within the praxis, we differentiate between:
- Ideomotor praxis: ability to perform a simple intentional movement or gesture.
- Ideological Praxis: ability to manipulate objects through a sequence of gestures, which implies knowledge of the function of the object, knowledge of the action and knowledge of the serial order of the acts that leads to that action.
- Facial praxis: ability to perform movements or gestures with various parts of the face: lips, eyes, tongue, eyebrows, cheeks, etc.
- Visuoconstructive praxis: ability to plan and make the necessary movements to organize a series of elements in space to form a drawing or final figure.
Basic functions of praxis:
Praxis is the ability to execute a movement. When we walk, dress or do any type of motor activity we use this ability. The ability to perform these actions is called apraxis.
Praxis also implies the knowledge of the functions of the objects that we want to use, or of the acts that we want to carry out to use an object or perform an action.
Thus, praxis are a very important part of our daily lives. Any action we want to perform implies this ability. Activities as simple and important as smiling or talking need these skills to be carried out and that people with apraxis cannot perform.
ALTERATIONS IN THIS DIMENSION IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER’S DEMENTIA
Any alteration in this area is called apraxis.
Apraxis consist of the difficulty or impossibility of correctly performing learned movements because of a brain injury and in the absence of mental disorders, sensorimotor, perceptual alterations or language comprehension.
For example, patients with apraxis have difficulty producing gestures or movements of a body part.
Clinical manifestations:
- Inability to correctly perform a verbal order movement.
- Impediment to properly imitate a movement performed by the examiner.
- Inability to perform approximately (?) one movement in response to an object.
- Inability to manipulate an object properly.
Types of apraxis:
- Ideomotor: Inability to put an idea into practice.
- Ideational: loss of ability to mentally formulate and verbally express the sequence of the various processes related to the action.
- Conduct: Alteration in the execution of the gestural activity to the imitation, being to a lesser extent to the verbal order.
- Clothing: Difficulty dressing, arranging, manipulating or putting on (is the same as “dressing”) clothing.
- Buccolinguofacial: Inability to perform voluntary movements with the muscles of the larynx, pharynx, tongue, lips and cheeks with preservation of the automatic movements of these same muscle groups.
- Of the march: Difficulty initiating the movements of walking and to realize “abstract” movements, for example kicking an imaginary ball.
- Constructional: Inability to execute random or copied drawings and two-dimensional or three-dimensional constructional tasks.
- Kinetics of limbs: Loss of ability to make precise and independent movements (lack of skill in hands and legs).
SERIOUS GAMES APPROPRIATE FOR THIS DIMENSION:
All games aimed at improving this cognitive area, imply a link between knowing what we want to do and the capacity of doing it effectively.
These activities emphasize the aspect linked to the knowledge of the action to be carried out, to the possibility of planning the movements necessary to reach the desired end and to the actual execution of the action.
The most therapeutic tasks are those related to music therapy, physiotherapy and occupational speech therapy.
The serious games recommended to train this dimension are the following: