Apraxia

What is Apraxia?

Apraxia is first and foremost a neurological condition. It involves an inability to make or perform familiar or learned movements on command. It is not a cognitive condition, someone with apraxia is capable of understanding the command and what the movement is, and they are also willing to perform it. However, someone with apraxia still can not make the movement happen, because the executive function is not working appropriately.

It often means that people with apraxia are unable to perform everyday tasks.

Understanding nervous system-related symptoms and features.

Symptoms may affect multiple parts of the body. Understanding which part of the body a symptom affects, can help us to better understand the potential underlying causes of a symptom, including a rare disease or genetic syndrome.

The nervous system is made up of a network of nerves and cells that carry messages to and from both the brain and the spinal cord. Within the nervous system are the Central nervous system and the Peripheral nervous system.

The brain and spinal cord make up the central nervous system.

Within the peripheral nervous system are the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. The somatic system controls responses to sensory stimuli, while the autonomic nervous system controls the inner workings of organs, including digestion, breathing and the heartbeat.

Sleep is one body function, controlled by the autonomic nervous system, specifically the sympathetic nervous system.

What should I do next?

In some instances, apraxia may be one of the features of a rare disease or genetic syndrome. To find out if someone with Apraxia, may be due to a genetic syndrome, it is important to have a consultation and evaluation with a clinical genetic specialist.  Specialists may also suggest specific genetic testing or other types of tests to help reach a diagnosis.  FDNA’s AI technology can help speed up the diagnostic process by analyzing facial features and other health information.