There are everyday skills that many of us take for granted. At Abilities Unlimited, we help our clients adapt or accommodate based on the specific disabilities that they may have.
We learn and help the individual needs of each person. It is important to seek support and resources from healthcare providers, caregivers, and community organizations as needed. Here are seven home-living skills that are essential for every adult.
7 home-living skills for adults
1. Self-care skills: including personal hygiene, dressing, grooming, and managing medications.
Personal hygiene improves the quality of life. Personal hygiene helps the interaction with others and self-esteem. Teaching and creating a routine for our clients on how to groom themselves and when to take medications is a step closer to self-sufficiency.
2. Cooking and meal preparation: including selecting nutritious foods, following recipes, and using kitchen appliances safely.
Helping our clients engage and learn in the kitchen is a skill that keeps on giving. Our clients are taught to make healthy choices, follow recipes and use everyday kitchen appliances. Our facility is ready to help those who are ready to learn.
3. Cleaning and housekeeping: including tidying up, laundry, and household maintenance.
Keeping your place clean is something that is hard for many of us. Here at Abilities Unlimited, we help create easy-to-follow steps for our clients to keep their place clean. We teach them laundry skills, following directions, household cleaning, and chemical safety.
4. Budgeting and money management: including paying bills, creating a budget, and managing finances.
Money management is taught in a fun and engaging way at Abilities. We help our clients learn by applying real-world scenarios. We help teach them Money skills, identifying money, budgeting, banking, numbers, and using a calculator. These skills support our clients in getting close to becoming independent. Take a look at one of our previous blogs about how Sonic Wednesday plays a big role in this area.
5. Time management: including planning and scheduling activities, prioritizing tasks, and using calendars and reminders.
Here at Abilities, we help our clients stay on-task. We work with each of our clients on how they can improve their production. Training them how to follow directions, listen, and build organizational skills helps create and better use of their time and the time of others.
6. Communication skills: including effective communication with family, friends, and caregivers, as well as accessing community resources and services.
We teach our clients to learn the address of friends and family. Not only that but also how to follow directions and respect those in charge. We prepare our clients to enter the working world and learn how to keep a job.
At Abilities, we use music therapy to increase our client's vocabulary, encourage communicating feelings, how to understand and learn the lyrics to a song,
7. Mobility and transportation: including using public transportation or accessible vehicles, navigating different environments, and managing mobility aids or assistive devices.
One of the most important parts of feeling independent is being able to go where you want to. Our clients are provided with free local resources to help them get to where they need to be. Learning how to use public transportation and read maps engages them to take new steps toward feeling comfortable in the world they live in.
Abilities Unlimited of Fort Smith, Inc. is a non-profit organization serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since the early 1960s. Learn more about how we are involved in the community by visiting our website, contacting us for more information on our programs, or following us on Facebook and Instagram.
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