Executive functioning skills are cognitive processes that impact children’s ability to participate in occupations. They enable children to pay attention, resist impulses, initiate tasks, and regulate emotions. Executive function skills have been associated with various outcomes, including academic achievement and school readiness. Deficits have been recongized in youngsters with an array of disabilities that are encountered frequently by occupational therapists. Nonetheless, therapists often overlook executive function issues – concentrating instead on a narrow segment of children’s needs that emphasize motor skills and sensory processing concerns. This capstone project examines executive functioning’s effect on children’s performance and devises an occupation-based approach to assessment and intervention. It provides an evidence-based program named Brainy Backpacks to guide occupational therapists in offering holistic, client-centered care for children who have executive function weaknesses. The project provides occupational therapists with the knowledge and skills to identify children’s needs, to offer supportive strategies, and to broaden their own lens beyond the limited focus of motor and sensory issues.
