Daily routines
- Daily living
- Cooking and meal preparation
- Personal and household routines
Adaptive Skills Training (AST)
Learn practical skills through one-to-one instruction.
Adaptive Skills Training helps children, teens, and adults build skills for everyday life through personalized teaching, guided practice, and real-life application.
What AST is
An instructor teaches—not simply supervises.
The learner works directly with an instructor who turns an individualized goal into clear, manageable learning. Instruction can include explanation, modeling, prompting, guided practice, repetition, and changes in support as the learner develops the skill. Adaptive Skills Training is one way we provide personalized Life Skills instruction, with a focus on teaching and practicing specific adaptive skills.
Sessions are shaped around the individual’s current abilities, learning style, pace, routines, interests, and goals.
What AST can address
Everyday skills, selected for the individual.
A learner may focus on one area or connect several skills through practical activities. No learner is expected to work on every area.
Planning & organization
- Organization and planning
- Money skills
- Executive functioning
Communication & community
- Communication and self-advocacy
- Social skills
- Community navigation
Interests, technology & work
- Technology
- Recreation and interests
- Work-related skills
- Other individualized goals
How instruction works
A goal becomes something the learner can practice.
The exact teaching process changes with the person and the skill. A typical learning sequence may include:
- 1
Understand the goal
Start with what the learner can already do, where support is useful, and why the skill matters in daily life.
- 2
Teach and model
Break the skill into manageable steps, explain or demonstrate those steps, and adapt instruction to how the person learns.
- 3
Practice with support
Use guided practice, repetition, and the level of prompting the learner needs in a meaningful setting.
- 4
Adjust over time
Change the pace or teaching strategy and gradually reduce support when appropriate as the learner develops the skill.
Personalization & assessment
Begin with the learner—not a required test.
Instruction is based on the learner’s goals and current abilities. An ElevateAbility assessment is not required to begin services.
- If a relevant assessment already exists, we can review and use it to help shape the learning plan.
- If there is no assessment, one can be completed when it would be helpful.
- Goals and teaching strategies can be adjusted as learning develops.
Your next step
Ready to build skills for real life?
Tell us what you want to work on. We’ll listen and help you understand the next step.