The expanding relevance of executive functioning in occupational therapy: Is it on your radar?

Executive functioning is a construct that involves complex, high-order or high-level abilities, processes, capacities or functions that draw on, manage or supervise low-level, primary or basic elements of metacognition or cognition. These components act in an integrated manner to allow people to successfully perform complex, novel and dynamic occupations. The occupational therapy literature has significantly increased its attention to executive functioning in recent years. Prior to 2009, the term 'executive functioning' appeared just 10 times in the English-language occupational therapy literature. In contrast, almost 40 research articles have been published between 2009 and mid-way through 2014. Researchers are not only challenging the ways in which occupational therapists have understood executive functioning, but also expanding the range of clinical populations with which it has been associated. There has been a transformation in knowledge about executive functioning - has there been a related shift in the way that occupational therapists address it in practice?