Essential for Living

Essential for Living is a communication, behavior, and functional skills assessment, curriculum, and skill-tracking instrument for both children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities. It is especially useful for learners with limited communication repertoires, minimal daily living skills, or severe problem behavior. This instrument is based on concepts, principles, and empirically-validated procedures from Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and from B. F. Skinner’s ground-breaking analysis of verbal behavior (Skinner, 1957).Essential for Living is both an assessment and a curriculum. It is used to determine the current performance level of each child or adult with respect to skills that are part of the instrument, in other words, to conduct a curriculum-based assessment. This instrument is also used to develop appropriate goals and objectives for individual education or support plans and to track skill acquisition and problem behavior.Essential for Living was developed by Patrick McGreevy. Ph.D., a behavior analyst with 40 years experience with children and adults with severe disabilities. He was assisted by Troy Fry and Colleen Cornwall, who also have extensive experience with children and adults with limited skill repertoires and severe problem behavior.