Development of ideomotor praxis representation

To create a short screening instrument to investigate the development of id eomotor praxis representation (IPR), 857 normally developing children betwe en the ages of 2 1/2 and 9 1/2 years were investigated. The TPR screening c onsisted of six mimed actions which had to be performed on verbal request. The greatest change in the representational style is the transition from pe rforming the action using the body as the object to performing with an imag inary object (i.e. symbolic representation). This transition suggests a dev elopment from a concrete and egocentric level of performance to an abstract and allocentric level. Before the age of 6 years differences are evident b etween self-directed and externally directed gestures. The level of symboli c representation has to be dissociated from the degree of motor precision, which shows hardly any improvement after 6 years of age. With the proposed model one may interpret the level of IPR in clinical practice. IPR screenin g is clinically relevant from the age of 4 1/2 years onwards.