EFL – Essential For Living

Join the Speaker Initiative

Many non-verbal children are not provided with an alternative method of speaking and participate in instruction or behavior therapy 'solely as a listener'. Others are provided with an alternative method, such as picture exchange or an electronic tablet, that is not portable or requires multiple responses to make simple requests. These methods are often abandoned by the children, resulting in young adults with problem behavior 'when they want to make requests'. Essential for Living will help you select and confirm an alternative, method of speaking that meets the CAFE criteria -- Continuously Available, Frequently used, and Effortless -- and is much less likely to be abandoned later.

Learn More About the Speaker Initiative →

68 New Speakers

Information on EFL

To view information on Essential For Living, how our information is designed, and who it works best for, click here.

The Scope & Sequence of EFL

Essential for Living includes seven skill domains and one domain on problem behavior, to find out more click here.

Getting Started with EFL

To see where you should start with Essential For Living, click here.

An Intro & User Guide for EFL

To see the intro and user guide for Essential For Living click here.

Ordering EFL

Click here to visit the Essential For Living store.

EFL Report Templates

For report templates that you can download and print out click here.

Alignment with the Common Core & The FL Access Points

To access excel templates that provide an alignment of the skills from 5 of the 7 skill domains, click here.

Joining the Speaker Initiative

To find out more about what the Speaker Initiative is, and how you can join it, click here.

Selecting A Method of Speaking

Many children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities are not able to communicate effectively with ‘spoken words’ and require an alternative method of speaking (AMP), the AMS Comparison Tool, helps to quickly determine candidates for an alternative method of speaking. Learn more here.

Collecting Data

Click here to access and print our self-graphing data sheets, which can be used to collect first opportunity of the day probe data or other types of summarized daily performance.