TSBVI Independent Living Assessment

Dear parents and teachers, I am often asked to come and assess students for independent living skills. Many parents are not sure what they should be doing or where to start with getting their children to develop greater independent living skills.
The first step to learning how to help your child become more independent is using the Texas School for the Blind Independent Living Assessment.
The Texas School for the Blind Independent Living Assessment is a comprehensive checklist of independent living skills. The skill topics include sections on self care, social competence and play and leisure. The topics are sub divided into categories such as grooming, food management, clothing management, problem solving and planning and physical games/sports. Each section is organized by age. The youngest age group is birth with most skill ages starting at age 4. It’s not too early to get started!Ask your TVI about obtaining a copy or look at the www.tsbvi.edu for ordering information.
Parents and teachers can use the assessment for continuous evaluation. It is not meant to be a one-time assessment. This assessment is a great way to track skill success and help students maintain age appropriate skills. I refer back to the checklist to help determine what I should start with when working on a skill.
This assessment is beneficial to parents because it can act as a guide for what skills need to be developed to attain greater independence. Parents, students and TVIs can work together to fill out the assessment. It should be reviewed regularly as children master skills.
I encourage all my families to use this resource. It is parent friendly and easy to use.
Do it at home: I also encourage you to look over the skills and think about ways you can incorporate the topics into everyday life. All of my students are encouraged to have 20 minutes of daily living skill practice a day (that equates to at least 3 chores per day!).