Development of praxis in children

Praxis was defined as the ability to perform skilled movements on command or demonstration. The performances of 87 normal male children, ages 1 to 6 yr., were assessed on four measures of praxis: oral praxis command, oral praxis demonstration, limb praxis command, and limb praxis demonstration. These measures were also correlated with measures of language and articulation development for the entire group across ages and for yearly age intervals. Results showed an orderly emergence of praxis in all measures beginning about age 1 and reaching nearly perfect performance by age 6. Predictably, ability to follow demonstration emerged earlier than ability to follow spoken commands. Praxis correlated somewhat with articulation and language skills at age 2 but the magnitude of the correlations decreased with increasing age intervals. Normative data are provided for clinical researchers interested in studying "apraxic" children.