A Journey with Essential for Living
Complimentary Q and A Sessions
Frequent complimentary ‘Question and Answer Sessions’ are conducted by Dr. McGreevy and the EFL Team. For the next available sessions: https://www.efltraining.com/registration.
Upcoming sessions with Dr. McGreevy: Nov. 21 and 28; with Miguel Avila: Nov. 15.
If your group would like to schedule a session, send an email with your available days and times to:
Dr. McGreevy patrick@essentialforliving.com
Troy Fry troy@essentialforliving.com
Miguel Avila miguel@essentialforliving.com
Emily Beal Wilkinson emily@essentialforliving.com
Kristina Montgomery kristina@essentialforliving.com
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An Overview of Essential for Living [EFL]
The mission of Essential for Living [EFL] is to provide children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities, including but not limited to autism, a comprehensive curriculum referenced to ‘quality of life’, rather than typical development or academic standards, along with evidence-based teaching ‘and measurement‘ strategies and procedures, that result in the dignity and quality of life these children and adults deserve. An overview of EFL is provided in several languages:
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Ordering Essential for Living from this Website
The Essential for Living Curriculum, Method of Speaking, Teaching, Data Collection, and Progress Monitoring materials include:
- Essential for Living: A Practitioner’s Handbook [EFL] which is available in English and Spanish (Esenciales para la Vida [EPV]) as a paper book and an e-book.
- The AMS Selection Tool is available as a free APP. This tool will help you determine if a child or an adult needs an alternative method of speaking and how to select a method that is consistent with their current skills and behavioral repertoire, test the effectiveness of this method, and insure that this method lasts a lifetime. This tool will be available soon in Spanish.
- Essential for Living: The Teaching Manual which is currently available only in English and only as a paper book.
- Data sheets can be downloaded from this website and are currently available in only in English.
- The Essential for Living All Skills Learner Scoring Manual is available in English [ARP] and Spanish [ERP] as durable paper scoring manuals. The Essential Eight Skills Learner Scoring Manual [EARP] (which includes only the Essential Eight Skills) is also available as a durable paper scoring manual, but only in English.
- The EFL APP, which includes electronic data sheets and functions as an electronic progress monitoring manual, is available in English and will soon be available in Spanish.
You can order these materials from our online store on this website http://essentialforliving.com/store/ or send a purchase order to office@essentialforliving.com
For delivery of the EFL Practitioner’s Handbook in Spanish to Latin America as a paper book, your order from our store will be re-directed to our trusted distributor in Colombia, who will take the order and deliver it to your location. The All Skills Learner Scoring Manual in Spanish as a paper book will be available for delivery to Latin America soon.
Orders for the Essential for Living handbook as an e-book in English and in Spanish, along with orders for The EFL APP in English (and soon in Spanish), and the AMS Selection Tool in English and soon in Spanish, will be redirected to our trusted partner, Data Makes the Difference.
Ordering Essential for Living from Other Sources
You can also order Essential for Living [EFL] and Esenciales para la Vida [EPV] as paper books from Different Roads to Learning https://difflearn.com/pages/search-results-page?q=essential%20for%20living
You can also order Essential for Living in English [EFL] as a paper book from BALC (formerly Behavior Development Solutions) https://www.balcbookstore.com/products
If you are from Canada, you can also order Essential for Living in English [EFL] as a paper book from Caversham Booksellers https://www.cavershambooksellers.com
If you are from the UK, Europe, the Middle East, India, or Africa, you can order Essential for Living in English [EFL] as a paper book from Talking Autism https://www.talkingautism.co.uk/store/
The Essential for Living Practitioner’s Handbook [EFL] and the All Skills Learner Scoring Manual [ARP] will be available in Italian (the 2nd. printing) and Simplified (Mandarin) Chinese soon. Plans are currently underway for making these resources available in Arabic and Hebrew.
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Getting Started with Essential for Living
If you are new to Essential for Living, we suggest going to our YouTube Channel, which contains several introductory videos which can be accessed by clicking here.
Many people begin using Essential for Living without any formal training at all. They read the first four chapters of the handbook and, referring to pages 28, 29, and 39, begin conducting their first Quick Assessment of skill deficits.
Some people use the page facing page one of the EFL Handbook: http://essentialforliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EFL-WhatandHow-BEST.pdf
Others use the Essential for Living Introduction and User Guide which is available in:
This document also includes the scoring grid for the EFL Quick Assessment, permitting new users to complete their first Quick Assessment prior to purchasing scoring manuals or subscriptions to the EFL APP.
Still others use EFL Video III: Conducting An Assessment Skill Deficits and Tracking Learner Progress with Essential for Living click here.
If you’re feeling a bit OVERWHELMED…you’re not alone…
give this a try….
Getting Started with Essential for Living: What, Why, and How
http://essentialforliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/8-EFL-GettingStarted.pdf
If you prefer to participate in one of our in-person or online training options, the following options are available… https://www.efltraining.com/learning-tools
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The Essential Eight Skills
[and the Necessary Nine)
Many children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities and limited skill repertoires experience deficits in the Essential Eight Skills:
- Making Requests [mands]
- Waiting after making requests
- Accepting Removals — Transitions, Sharing, and Taking Turns
- Completing Required Tasks — Completing Previous Acquired Tasks when asked to do so
- Accepting “No”
- Following Directions related to Health and Safety
- Completing Daily Living Skills related to Health and Safety
- Tolerating Skills related to Health and Safety
These skills are also known as ‘the must-have skills’ and are some of the first skills addressed in Essential for Living.
Recently, in our Teaching Manual http://essentialforliving.com/product/efl-teaching-manual, we acknowledged that leisure skills should have been considered ‘must-have skills’ and added to the ‘Essential Eight’, making this group of skills the ‘Necessary Nine‘.
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‘The Alternative Method of Speaking (AMS) Selection Tool’
A new ‘AMS Selection Tool‘ has been developed by Data Makes the Difference, the developers and distributors of the VB-MAPP APP and the EFL APP. This APP can be downloaded ‘free of charge’:
https://datamakesthedifference.com/ams-selection-tool
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The Speaker Initiative
Chapter 6 of the Essential for Living Practitioner’s Handbook [EFL] is dedicated to making certain that as many individuals with moderate-to-severe disabilities as possible become effective speakers and remain so for their entire lifetime. If you are working with a child or an adult who currently does not have an effective method of speaking, and you are able to select a method for them that becomes effective, send us their story office@essentialforliving.com. With respect for their privacy, we will celebrate your and their achievement on this website.
http://essentialforliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/EFL-TheSpeakerInitiative.pdf
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The Quick Assessment
On page 39 of the Essential for Living Practitioner’s Handbook [EFL], you will find a description of how to use the EFL Quick Assessment. The printed forms used in completing this assessment can be found at: http://essentialforliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/EFL-QuickAssessForms.pdf
This assessment can also be completed on the EFL APP (see the next section).
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The Essential for Living APP
The Essential for Living web-based APP permits users to:
- conduct an assessment,
- record learner progress with respect to skills and problem behavior,
- summarize the extent of that progress, and
- prepare reports.
For access to the EFL APP: click here
For a free trial account, contact Liz Maher: liz@eflapp.com
The new Alternative Method of Speaking (AMS) Selection Tool has been revised and is still part of the EFL APP. It is, however, now available as a separate APP ‘free of charge’:
https://datamakesthedifference.com/ams-selection-tool/
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A Sample of the 3,100 Skills in EFL
Essential for Living is composed of 3,000 functional skills. The first three domains contain 1,900 Speaking and Listening Skills. The remaining four domains contain 1,100 Daily Living, Leisure, Vocational, Functional Academic, Tolerating, and Component Skills.
The following is a sample of these skills: click here
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The First Five Skills
We often suggest that new users begin with one child or adult and consider teaching these first five skills: http://essentialforliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EFL-FirstFivePlForm.
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The Scope and Sequence of EFL
The scope and sequence of Essential for Living are described in this document: http://essentialforliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EFL-ScopeandSequence.pdf
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