The phone rings, and a calm voice says it is the bank’s fraud department and needs your account number and PIN. A pot of pasta water is on high heat, and there is email to check in the next room. An appointment is across town, somewhere never visited before. Each moment asks for the same short run of thinking: notice what could go wrong, weigh the options, and choose a safe next step. In occupational therapy these tasks are called instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). For adults returning home after a stroke or brain injury, and for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities working toward living on their own, they are often the skills people most want to practice.
This page is a starting point for life skills worksheets for adults. Download two free pages from the Safety Reasoning set below, one on kitchen safety and one on money and fraud, see how the 26-worksheet set moves from everyday safety questions to scenarios in five areas of daily living, find the printable set that practices each life skill area, and read why a practice worksheet is not a life skills assessment.
Download the free life skills worksheets
Download the PDFWant more pages like this? Safety Reasoning Worksheets (26 Worksheets) $3.75 See the full set
Worksheets SVR3A and SVR3E from the Safety Reasoning set, both Level 3 (activity-specific scenarios). Kitchen and Cooking Safety Scenarios (1/4) has two questions: Stove Monitoring & Distraction Management and Oven Temperature & Cooking Time. Financial Decision-Making and Fraud Awareness Scenarios (1/4) has two more: a phone scam asking for an account number and PIN, and a bank balance of $150 where about $500 was expected. Under each question is a “Common reasoning responses may include” list for the helper. Free for personal, classroom, and session use.
- Level: 3 of 3, activity-specific scenarios
- Questions: 4, two per page
- Areas: meal preparation and money
- Answers: spoken, untimed
- Paper: US Letter
What are life skills worksheets for adults?
Life skills are the everyday tasks that keep a household running beyond basic self-care: handling money, taking medication on schedule, preparing a meal, getting around the community, keeping the home secure, and dealing with other people. Life skills worksheets put one slice of that on paper, as a scenario to reason through, steps to put in order, or a label to read. They do not replace the real task, but they let the thinking behind it be practiced at a table, where a wrong answer costs nothing.
The free pages are verbal reasoning worksheets with no answer lines. The helper reads each scenario aloud, the person explains what they would do, and the list under the question shows the kinds of points a sound answer might touch.
Hazard recognition
Noticing what could go wrong before anything has. In the stove question, the pot left on high heat is the whole problem.
Safety judgment
Choosing the safe option over the quick one. The stove list notes that “just 5 minutes” is not a suitable answer for someone who is highly forgetful.
Planning the next steps
Putting a response in a sensible order. The low balance question asks what steps you would take to figure out what happened.
Knowing when to ask for help
Recognizing when a problem needs someone else. Calling the bank directly appears in the response lists for both money questions.
Daily living skills worksheets, area by area
Planning life skills activities for adults usually means drawing on several sets, and the life skills worksheets for adults collection groups them in one place. Here is each area and the set that practices it:
- Managing money and spotting scams. The four financial pages of the Safety Reasoning set cover phone and text scams, a deal that is too good to be true, a relative asking for money, an unfamiliar monthly charge, and a credit card minimum payment. For counting money and checking change by hand, the Money Management Kit, U.S. Edition is a physical kit with practice currency (a Canadian edition exists too).
- Medication routines. The Medication Management Worksheets for Adults (10, each with an answer page) cover pill and label reading, a weekly sorting grid, and everyday decisions; two are in the free medication management worksheets article. Safety Reasoning adds eight medication scenarios, such as a missed dose or three pills left on a Friday afternoon.
- Preparing a meal safely. The four Safety Reasoning kitchen pages cover the stove and oven, knives, hot cookware, raw chicken on the cutting board, and leftovers of uncertain age.
- Getting around the community. The community access pages plan a trip to an unfamiliar address, handle getting lost, take a bus for the first time, and plan an outing with a cane or wheelchair.
- Keeping the home secure. The home security pages cover locking up, an unexpected visitor, being locked out, a front door found ajar, living alone, and an evacuation plan.
- Social situations. The Social Reasoning Worksheets (30) practice reading what someone means rather than what they said: indirect requests, sarcasm, boundaries, and manipulative language.
- Following the steps of a routine. Task Sequencing (20 worksheets) has the person number the steps of tasks such as making a meal or doing laundry; try the free task sequencing worksheet. For self-care, the Daily Routine Cards Bundle has step-by-step cards for using the toilet, handwashing, teeth and dentures, and dressing, written for dementia care.
For situations that fit no single area, the Problem Solving Worksheets for Adults (30) pose “What would you do?” scenarios; start with the free problem solving worksheet.
Is this a life skills assessment?
No. Occupational therapists use standardized, performance-based assessments to look at daily living skills, often when someone is preparing to return home or to live more independently. The Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills (KELS) is one example: an occupational therapy assessment of everyday living skills such as self-care, safety and health, money management, community mobility and telephone use, and work and leisure.
Assessments like these are given and interpreted by trained professionals. The Safety Reasoning set is something different: its own instructions describe the pages as non-standardized, with no scores or cut-offs. A spoken answer shows how someone reasons about a situation; it does not show what happens when the pot is really on the stove.
Worth knowing: the worksheets on this page are structured practice materials. They are not the KELS or any other test, they have no norms or scores, and the response lists are a guide for discussion, not a marking key. They are not an assessment, and they are not a substitute for evaluation by a qualified professional. If there is a concern about how someone manages safety, money, or medication at home, raise it with the professionals involved in their care.
How the safety reasoning worksheets are graded
After two pages of helper instructions, the 37-page PDF has 26 worksheets in three levels. A level can be used alone or mixed with others:
Level 1: basic everyday situations
3 worksheets (SVR1A to SVR1C), three short questions per page, nine in all, such as smoking in bed, a wet bathroom floor, the doorbell at night, and a power cut. The helper’s notes list “What to Look For” and “Red Flags” for each. Written for people who do best with short, concrete questions.
Level 2: general scenarios
3 worksheets (SVR2A to SVR2C), three questions per page, nine in all, with more detail: a pot forgotten on the stove, not remembering the morning pill, a stranger at the door claiming to check the furnace, a burning smell at 2:00 AM. Each has a “Common reasoning responses may include” list.
Level 3: activity-specific IADL scenarios
20 worksheets (SVR3A to SVR3T) in five areas of four worksheets each: meal preparation, financial management, community access, medication management, and home security. Two questions per page, eight per area, 40 in all. Both free pages come from this level.
| What you get | Free sample | Full set |
|---|---|---|
| Worksheets | 2 | 26 |
| Levels | Level 3 | Levels 1, 2, and 3 |
| Life skill areas | Meal preparation, money | Meal preparation, money, community access, medication, home security |
| Questions | 4 | 58 |
| Response lists for the helper | Yes | Yes, every question |
| Helper instructions and follow-up prompts | Not included | 2 pages |
| Repeat sessions without reusing a page | Two pages | Weeks of practice |
Using it in a session or at home
- Read the question as written, then wait. Give time for an answer before prompting, and note how long it takes.
- Keep the response list to yourself. It is a guide for the helper, not a checklist to recite. An answer can be safe and sensible while covering only a few of the points, or reasoning a different way.
- Follow up with “What if…?” or “Then what?” When an answer is short, ask one more. If the person would hang up on the caller, ask what comes next.
- Write notes in words, not numbers. The set suggests noting whether the main hazard was recognized, whether the solution was safe and workable, how much cueing was needed, and how well consequences were understood.
- Fit the scenario to the person. If someone does not drive or bank online, change the detail (the bus instead of the car, a paper statement instead of a website). When speaking is effortful, the person can write key words, or the helper can offer two options to choose between.
- Move between levels freely. If Level 3 scenarios are hard to follow, step back to the short Level 1 questions. When answers come easily, pick the Level 3 area closest to the person’s own week.
Who uses life skills worksheets
- Occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists working on instrumental activities of daily living
- Adults returning home after a stroke or brain injury, and the family members supporting them
- Adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities working toward independent living
- Transition and life-skills programs, and educators working with adult learners
- Hospital, outpatient, and community programs
The free pages above are two of twenty-six. The full Safety Reasoning Worksheets set includes all three levels and all five Level 3 areas, with the helper instructions at the front. It is also part of the Reasoning Worksheets Bundle, alongside the Problem Solving and Social Reasoning sets. The guides to money and medication management worksheets and executive functioning worksheets for adults explain how these sets fit together.
These materials support cognitive stimulation and structured practice. They are not medical treatment, medical or financial advice, or an assessment, and no specific therapeutic outcomes are claimed.
