Skills that improve daily life
EFL
Essential for Living
A comprehensive, criterion-referenced functional-skills assessment and curriculum for children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities, organized around safety, communication, dignity, participation, and quality of life.
Ask about this assessment →A score is a starting point.
Never the whole child.
Functional requesting and an effective communication method
Waiting, transitions, and accepting change
Health, safety, and tolerating essential care
Understanding before planning
Notice the strengths.
Understand the next step.
Essential for Living is a curriculum-based assessment with more than 3,100 functional skills across seven skill domains, plus a domain addressing problem behavior. It is referenced to safe, effective, and high-quality participation in family, school, and community life rather than to typical development or academic norms. Skills are sequenced from must-have to should-have, good-to-have, and nice-to-have so the team can begin with what has the greatest everyday value.
Communication is considered first, including whether the learner has an effective and sustainable way to request important items, activities, help, breaks, or relief from difficult situations. Other priorities include waiting, transitions, health and safety directions, daily living, tolerating essential care, leisure, vocational participation, functional academics, and related component skills. Selection should reflect frequency, risk, dignity, personal preferences, and family priorities. Results guide functional teaching and progress monitoring; they do not constitute a diagnosis.
We look beyond isolated scores to the child's engagement, strategy, communication, and response to support throughout the assessment.
What this assessment explores
Different skills.
One individual profile.
Functional requesting and an effective communication method
Waiting, transitions, and accepting change
Health, safety, and tolerating essential care
Daily living, leisure, and vocational participation
Problem behavior and component skills in context
From observation to direction
Careful enough to be useful.
Human enough to be true.
- 01Listen
We begin with history, current priorities, and the situations that matter in everyday life.
- 02Observe
The clinician engages the child directly through selected tasks and natural interaction.
- 03Interpret
Patterns, strengths, barriers, and context are considered—not a score in isolation.
- 04Translate
Findings become clear, practical priorities for an individualized support plan.
not a label.
What the results support
A thoughtful starting point for action.
The outcome is a socially valid set of priorities tied to communication, safety, autonomy, dignity, and meaningful participation. The plan identifies what to teach first, where the skill must work in real life, and how the team will recognize fluent and generalized performance.
Talk with us about assessment →Clinical care matters. Assessment selection and interpretation must be completed by a qualified professional and considered alongside direct observation, individual history, information from relevant professionals, and family priorities. No single tool defines or diagnoses the whole child.
Understanding can change the next step.
