Executive Functioning in the Schools: Perspectives from Occupational Therapists

ABSTRACT

Awareness of executive functioning and its relevance to both occupational participation and special education is expanding. This study describes how school-based occupational therapists address executive functioning in practice and determined if this differs from traditional areas. Fourteen occupational therapists from four districts in Michigan completed the 36-item online survey consisting of closed and open-ended questions. A majority of these participants agreed that executive functioning impacts school function and occupational therapists should address it in school; yet, only 33% provided intervention using this lens and 77% indicated this as the area they feel least prepared to address in school-based practice. Executive function practice significantly differed from handwriting (p < .05), sensory (p < .01), and fine motor competency (p < .01); fine motor and sensory evaluation (p < .05); and handwriting intervention (p < .05). Participants described their role with executive functioning as collaborative, supplemental to enhance participation, and applicable to functional organization tasks. Although some occupational therapists are embracing an occupation-based process explicitly considering executive functioning, a majority need continued education, role clarity, and advocacy to more intentionally align their team’s services with emerging best practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational therapy
• best practice
• executive function
• school
• role

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to recognize and thank Dr. Callie Victor, Dr. Christine Colwell, and the 2020-2021 PPOTD cohort at Shenandoah University for their input and feedback during the development and revision of the project. They also offer their sincere gratitude to the occupational therapists who participated in this study.

Disclosure Statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and ethical obligation as a researcher the first author reports that she is employed by Northwest Education Services (formerly Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District), a government entity that may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed paper. Those interests have been fully  disclosed to Taylor & Francis, and an approved plan is in place for managing any potential conflicts arising from that involvement.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.