"Praxis" means difficulty with motor planning. Two of the terms you'll hear mentioned are apraxia and dyspraxia. If I understand correctly, apraxia means "absence" where "dyspraxia" means not-fully-functional. That's my totally non-technical explanation! In real terms, when I've talked to other parents etc, I more often hear the term "apraxia" related to speech/oral language, and dyspraxia related to other types of motor development. From the reading I've done, it seems that just as there are hundreds of different ways that our bodies use motor planning, there are as many and possibly thousands times more ways in which dyspraxia/apraxia can impact a person - so apraxia or dyspraxia in one person might look entirely different in another person with the same diagnosis.
Our ds12 is dyspraxic - his diagnosis is "Developmental Coordination Disorder". In his case, the challenge isn't quite that he has to be shown something to learn how to do it, but that he has a challenge with developing the automaticity that is required to do fine motor skills such as tying your shoes, handwriting etc. When he was very young, he was delayed in learning how to crawl, walk, talk etc. No one really thought much of it at the time because of several reasons - he was our first child and we were seeing all the things that were a-ok with him and not realizing that the little quirks in development were anything other than quirks; several of our family members were also late in developing the same skills and we wrote it off to either being the first child and not needing to do those things or taking after older family members (who most likely, in hindsight, were also dyspraxic!), and also because even before he could talk it was clear that he was very bright, and once he started talking he sounded like a little professor - it was clear he was a high IQ kid - so much of his quirkiness was chalked up to that.
In school the primary impact for our ds has been in handwriting - he uses a laptop and keyboarding across all subjects, including math. It seemed to take him a long time to learn math facts too, even though he's always been very quick at learning math concepts. He is also not terribly coordinated, so things like team sports and gym class are among the things he'd like to wipe off the face of the earth! He also has a few quirky things that most people wouldn't recognize as meaning anything, but they are related to his dyspraxia - he learned how to write in cursive in 4th grade but completely forgot it after not using it for the summer. Getting dressed takes him a long time. He thinks he's running when really he's just walking semi-fast and not really all that fast. He didn't learn how to blow his nose until he was 11 (in spite of trying like crazy for years). His stomach feels like it's full before it really is.
Now that you've read all of that you might be thinking - YIKES! or UGH. Try not to worry - there are also many *many* wonderful things I could write down about our ds if I had the time or wasn't going to run out of cyber-space to write it in. Being dyspraxic hasn't been the highlight of his life, but it also hasn't held him back from being the funny, bright, creative, loving, totally typically happy kid that he is. He's fine, and I'm sure your dd will be fine too
BTW, ds used to eat anything when he was really young, but starting at around 7 he became very picky at 7. He still has issues with texture etc at 12. I think that's not uncommon in kids with issues with praxis, but I could be mistaken.
Welcome to the forums - there are several other parents around who are dealing with similar issues, so you aren't alone.
Best wishes,
polarbear
ps - wanted to add a quick note for anyone who's reading this and dealing with dyspraxia - I mentioned my ds' intense dislike for gym and team sports, and fwiw he tends to naturally gravitate toward being a couch potato - but the difficulties he has in gym and with team sports due to motor planning haven't kept him from having an active and healthy set of activities to enjoy - he loves mountain biking and skiing and those are sports he can enjoy without having to keep up with other kids who don't have the same motor planning challenges.
