Measuring Dyspraxia in Autism using a Five-Minute Praxis Exam.
A five-minute praxis check reliably flags dyspraxia in autistic clients so you can act early without burning session time.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Zitter et al. (2023) built a five-minute praxis exam. They asked autistic and neurotypical kids to copy hand and tool motions.
The team counted errors like wrong sequence or awkward grip. They wanted a quick way to spot dyspraxia in clinic visits.
What they found
Autistic youth made three times more praxis errors than controls. The short battery still showed a large effect size.
Sensitivity and specificity were both above a large share. That means the test rarely misses dyspraxia and rarely over-calls it.
How this fits with other research
Kopp et al. (2010) saw the same motor trouble, but in girls only and with a longer test. Ashley’s tool matches that finding while cutting time from 30 minutes to 5.
Selau et al. (2025) also built a fast screener, yet for adaptive living skills. Together the papers give you two quick probes: one for motor planning and one for daily-function risk.
Goodwin et al. (2012) validated a caregiver checklist for theory-of-mind. Ashley adds a performance piece, so you can pair parent report with live praxis data.
Why it matters
You now have a five-minute window to spot motor planning issues that can slow skill acquisition. Slip the praxis exam into intake, note the error total, and use it to justify OT referrals or to shape fine-motor goals. Faster screening means earlier help and smoother sessions for kids who struggle to hold a pencil, tie shoes, or imitate sign language.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Difficulties with praxis, the ability to perform learned skilled movements, have been robustly demonstrated in autism spectrum disorder (autism). However, praxis assessment is not routinely included in autism characterization batteries, in part because it is traditionally time consuming to administer and score. We test whether dyspraxia in autism can be captured with a brief measure. METHOD: Youth with autism (n = 41) and matched typically developing controls (n = 32), aged 8 to 16 years, completed a 5-minute praxis battery. The 19-item battery included four subtests: gesture to command, tool use, familiar imitation, and meaningless imitation. Video recordings were coded for error types and compared to participant characterization variables. RESULTS: Consistent with research using a lengthy battery, autistic youth made more errors overall, with a large effect size. Groups demonstrated similar distributions of error types, suggesting that dyspraxia in autism is not limited to a particular error form. In the autism group, praxis was associated with adaptive functioning, but not autism traits. CONCLUSIONS: A shortened battery is sufficiently sensitive to praxis differences between autistic and typically developing youth, increasing the feasibility of including praxis within clinical assessments or larger research batteries aimed at testing relationships with downstream skills.
Research in autism spectrum disorders, 2023 · doi:10.1155/2015/736516