Strategies to compensate for apraxia among stroke clients

Abstract

Apraxia influences the daily life of stroke clients. Strategy training is the preferred intervention because it is expected to include generalization; that is, training effects are established from trained to nontrained tasks and across settings. Apraxia is a cognitive disorder characterized by the inability to perform previously learned skills (National Library of Medicine, 2008) that influences stroke clients' ability to perform daily life tasks (Bjorneby and Reinvang, 1985; Foundas, 1985). Treatment of apraxia should be part of a rehabilitation program because of its negative impact on daily life. Cognitive strategy training is the preferred form of treatment, as it focuses on improving daily life functioning by compensating for lost functions, despite the probably lasting presence of apraxia. In addition, strategy training has the advantage over skills training because of generalization of training results to other tasks and other contexts. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009.