Your guide to achieving daily living skills

You might have heard the phrase ‘daily living skills’ – but what does this actually mean?

In this blog we take a look at what daily living skills are, and how you can get help with them.

What are daily living skills?

Daily living skills are the kinds of skills that help you do everyday things. These skills often help you become more independent. Sometimes they’re called ‘life skills’.

The types of daily living skills you might need help with are different from person to person, just like how everyone’s needs, goals and abilities are different.

Here are some common examples of daily living skills:

• Getting ready for the day
• Hygiene practices
• Making meals
• Getting around - like help catching public transport
• Managing money
• Socialising and being engaged with your community
• Cleaning and house maintenance
• Laundry
• Shopping

Our top tips for developing daily living skills

While some people will need certain tasks done for them, many people want to learn those skills for themselves. These tips are to help the people who are wanting to gain more independence by learning daily living skills.

If you’re a parent or carer, make sure you check out our other blog ‘A guide to developing life skills in adults with disability’.

Here are our top tips:

1. Make sure everyone is on the same page

Like many things when it comes to the NDIS, wanting to learn a new skill often starts with a goal. It might be that you want to get more independence when it comes to preparing a meal, or maybe you want help developing a morning routine that works for you. Whatever it is, it’s important that everyone on your team knows what your end goal is and the plan to get there.

Often there are a few people involved to help you learn daily living skills. These people could be your parents and also your paid support workers. You might even ask them for help planning out how you will work on your skills development.

By letting everyone know what your goals are, your team will be able to help and support you to achieve them.

2. Take it at your own pace

Learning a new skill often takes time. Some people will learn quickly and some people need a little longer - that’s ok!

Try to not compare your journey with the journey that other people are on. These skills can have a wonderful effect on your life, so whether they take a few days or many years to learn, any pace that works for you is the right one to take.

If you try and take too much on or learn things too quickly it could lead to you feeling a bit overwhelmed.

3. Practice, practice, practice

We all know the old saying ‘practice makes perfect’ - well, that’s true! There is often a big difference in hearing about how something is done and then doing it yourself. This is why it’s so important to get all the practice you can in.

For example, if your goal is to learn to catch the train, you may want to practice under a variety of circumstances like in the rain or if the train is running late or even if you miss your stop. By doing it as a practice with support, means that when you do it independently you’ll feel confident and know what to do - even if something a little out of the ordinary happens.

4. Celebrate your wins

There are often lots of milestones when it comes to learning a new skill. It’s important that you celebrate these when you reach them! It can be hard work to learn new things and by celebrating them you can feel good about both what you’ve done and the future.

Can Endeavour Foundation help me build daily living skills?

Absolutely!

Helping people learn daily living skills is a big part of all our services. We want to see you gain independence and thrive.

The best place to get more information about the kinds of services we offer and how they might be able to help you is on our disability services page.