Overview
Essential for Living (EFL) is a comprehensive assessment and curriculum tool designed to evaluate and teach adaptive, social, communicative, and functional living skills in individuals with developmental disabilities. Developed by Dr. Patrick McGreevy and Troy Fry, the EFL framework helps clinicians and educators identify skill deficits, track progress over time, and create individualized teaching programs that foster independence and quality of life.
Key Components
Quick Assessment
A rapid screening that captures a learner’s current vocal and communicative abilities—perfect for pinpointing strengths and targets in under 10 minutes. It is an interview type process that looks at the learner's ability to use spoken words, whether they have an effective alternative method of speaking if applicable, and their ability to tolerate, be cooperative, engage in daily living skills and functional academics.AMS Selection Tool
An “Alternative Method of Speaking” Tool that helps you choose the most effective method of speaking for your learner. There are 46 methods of speaking in EFL. EFL allows you to select your learner's skill, sensory and behavioral repertoires and the EFL app will auto populate potential effective methods of speaking for you learner. These methods are ranked first by the number of repertoire matches that method shares with your learner, then by the advantages of speech that this method of speaking has, and finally by whether your learner can have a large unfamiliar audience or a small familiar one using this particular method. The purpose of using this tool is to find an effective method of speaking for those learners who don't use spoken words that are understandable to all. This alternative method of speaking should fit the "C.A.F.E criteria": Continually Available, Frequently used and Effortless. Only by meeting this criteria will a method of speaking last a lifetime.EFL Skills Inventory
The core checklist of functional living and social skills, organized into domains like Self-Care, Domestic Tasks, Community Participation, Functional Academics and Social Interaction.Determine the Extent of the ability of your learner to perform the skill
A structured rubric for rating how independently a learner performs each skill (e.g., Full Independence, Partial Prompting, Total Support), giving you clear benchmarks for progress. This area of the app allows you to identify the skills that are most important to your learner and baseline those skills by looking at small increments of progress. This type of data collection allows learners who might have not been able to demonstrate progress in the past to show that progress towards independence.Daily data collection in the Teaching section of the app
Self graphing daily data collection allows users to track their learners progress once a day. Even small increments of progress are now trackable.
Grids & Reports
Auto-generated PDFs and on-screen grids that map skill mastery at a glance—complete with drill-down detail on each item and visual progress charts for sessions, weekly summaries, or full program reviews. Coming soon!... a written report highlighting the learner's instructional level as well as a comparative report
Who Uses EFL?
Behavior Analysts (BCBAs, BCaBAs): To develop and monitor skill-acquisition programs.
Speech-Language Pathologists: For communication-focused adaptive skill goals.
Occupational Therapists: To address fine-motor and daily-living tasks.
Special Educators & Early Interventionists: To integrate adaptive skills into classroom and home settings as well as use the functional academics domain in EFL
Parents & Caregivers: To implement programmed teaching and track progress in daily routines. To easily see what skills are the most important to teach. EFL divides skills into "must have", "should have", "good to have" and "nice to have" making it very easy to determine what is most important for this particular person to learn.
Ownership & Collaboration
Data Makes The Difference — the team behind the EFL App — holds joint rights to the digital platform, in partnership with Dr. Patrick McGreevy and Troy Fry, the original authors. We collaborate directly with Dr. McGreevy and Mr. Fry to ensure the EFL App faithfully represents their curriculum model, stays up to date with best practices, and delivers a user experience optimized for practitioners and families alike.
Meet Our Leadership
Steve Maher, CEO of Data Makes The Difference
Liz Maher, Lead BCBA and Co-Founder
Under Steve’s strategic vision and Liz’s clinical leadership, our team brings the EFL App to practitioners worldwide—providing an evidence-based, user-friendly platform to support individuals with developmental disabilities in achieving greater independence.