A basket of washing sits by the machine, and the label in the sweater says one thing while the jeans say another. A recipe card asks for an oven temperature. A voicemail gives a number to call back, a store flyer ends on Wednesday, and the bins go out on a different day from the recycling. Each of these asks for the same short run of thinking: find the fact that matters, work out what to do with it, and check the plan still holds when something changes. In occupational therapy these tasks are called instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). For adults returning home after a stroke or brain injury, for adults with a learning disability working toward their own place, and for families supporting someone in the early stages of dementia, 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 Home & Daily Living set below, a care label to read and a laundry basket to sort, each with its answer page. Then see how the 32-worksheet set climbs through four levels, 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 PDFWorksheets D1 and D9 from the Home & Daily Living set, with the pack’s first guide page and both answer pages. Read a care label (Level 1) shows the label inside a wool sweater and asks three questions: the water temperature, whether it can go in the dryer, and where it says how to dry it. Sort the basket (Level 2) shows eight items of washing with their care symbols and asks for two loads, cold and hot, plus the one item that stays out of the machine. Free for personal, classroom, and session use.
Want the full set?
Personal-use license. Buying for a team? Choose the clinic license on the set's page.
- Level: 1 and 2 of 4
- Worksheets: 2, with an answer page each
- Questions: 6, scored out of 3 and 8
- Pictures: 10 greyscale drawings, print in black and white
- 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: doing the laundry, cooking a meal, shopping for food, using the phone, keeping the home clean, getting around by bus, dealing with the mail, and knowing who to call when something goes wrong. Life skills worksheets put one slice of that on paper, as a label to read, a flyer to compare, steps to put in order, or a week to plan. 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 from the Home & Daily Living set, the fourth pack in the life skills line and the first with pictures. Every task shows greyscale drawings of the clothes, foods, products and places it is about, and the facts a question needs are printed on the page, never hidden inside a picture.
Reading and interpreting
Finding the fact that matters on a label, a timetable or a notice. In the free Level 1 page, the care label gives the water temperature in words and in the symbol.
Sorting and categorizing
Grouping items by a rule. The free Level 2 page sorts eight items into a cold load, a hot load, and one item that stays out.
Comparing and deciding
Weighing two sources under a rule such as a budget or a deadline. Level 3 compares two store flyers for the same five items.
Planning and checking
Fitting several things into a day and re-planning when something changes. Level 4 plans laundry day on a shared sign-up sheet, then one washer breaks.
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:
- Running a home: laundry, meals, shopping lists, phone messages, chores, buses, mail and emergency contacts. The Home & Daily Living set (32 worksheets, each with an answer page) is built from care labels, recipe cards, food dates, store flyers, voicemails, a chore chart, a waste collection calendar, bus timetables, the mail pile and an emergency card. The free pages above come from it.
- Managing money. Bills, Banking & Paychecks (32 worksheets) reads bills, pay stubs, receipts and bank statements and plans two paydays; start with the free money management worksheets. 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).
- Health appointments and forms. Health Appointments & Forms (32 worksheets) reads appointment cards, reminder texts, clinic hours and pharmacy labels, and plans a health week.
- Scams and online safety. Scam & Online Safety (32 worksheets) works through the messages people really get: fake delivery fees, prize letters, a caller asking for a code, and a password reset plan.
- 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 judgment. The Safety Reasoning set (26 worksheets) poses spoken scenarios in the kitchen, with money, in the community, with medication and at home, with a list of common reasoning responses under every question for the helper. Two of its Level 3 pages, on kitchen safety and on money and scams, are free: download the Safety Reasoning sample (PDF).
- 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 from memory; 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 Home & Daily Living set is something different: its own guide describes the pages as practice materials with no norms, and asks that scores never be reported as test results. A sorted basket on paper shows how someone reads a label and applies a rule; it does not show what happens at the real machine.
Worth knowing: the worksheets on this page are structured practice materials. They are not the KELS or any other test, they have no norms, and the answer pages are a model for the helper, not a marking key with cut-offs. 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 at home, raise it with the professionals involved in their care.
How the Home & Daily Living worksheets are graded
The full pack has 32 worksheets in four levels, eight at each level, in eight areas: laundry, meals and kitchen safety, shopping lists, phone and messages, housekeeping, getting around, mail and paperwork, and emergency contacts. Every level has one worksheet in each area, so the same person can move up or down without changing the subject:
Level 1: Find
8 worksheets (D1 to D8), one document each with the key facts in bold, 1 or 2 steps, and answers that are circled or copied: a care label, a recipe card, a flyer, a voicemail, a chore chart, a bus timetable, a parcel card and an emergency card. The free Level 1 page is D1.
Level 2: Use
8 worksheets (D9 to D16), one document with one or two things to ignore, 2 or 3 steps, and a written answer: sort the basket, put the recipe steps in order, write the shopping list, take a message, bin day, which bus stop, sort the mail, and fill in an emergency card from five papers. The free Level 2 page is D9.
Level 3: Compare and decide
8 worksheets (D17 to D24), two documents and one or two rules, 3 or 4 steps, and a choice with a reason: which wash cycle, is the food still good, two stores for one list, call or text, which cleaning product, pass or single fares, keep or recycle, and the safe option during a power outage. These use two pages, papers then questions.
Level 4: Plan and check
8 worksheets (D25 to D32), three or more documents, three or more rules, 5 or 6 steps, and a change partway: laundry day with a broken washer, dinner guests who arrive early, three dinners on a $40 budget, an urgent repair call, a week of chores, a two-stop bus trip, a landlord’s inspection notice, and the mistakes in someone else’s plan. Each ends with a self-check.
| What you get | Free sample | Full set |
|---|---|---|
| Worksheets | 2 | 32 |
| Levels | Levels 1 and 2 | Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 |
| Life skill areas | Laundry | Laundry, meals, shopping lists, phone, chores, buses, mail, emergency contacts |
| Answer pages | 2 | One for every worksheet, with a note for the helper |
| Cue tally and progress sheet | Cue line on each page | Cue line on every page, plus a 32-row progress sheet |
| Practice cards and templates | Not included | 8 real-life cards and 5 templates |
| Repeat sessions without reusing a page | Two pages | Weeks of practice |
Using it in a session or at home
- Start one level below where you think the person is. If the first two sheets feel easy, move up. The guide suggests moving up after two sheets in a row done with little help and 80 percent or more correct.
- Circle the cue that was needed. The bottom of every page lists I, IV, G, DV, M and P, from independent to physical help. Circle the most help given, write the time, and keep the sheet.
- Change the support, not the sheet. Read the page aloud, cover the information that is not needed, highlight the key facts on the document, or show the answer page as a model and then try a similar sheet.
- Bring the real thing to the table. After the care label page, read the label in a garment the person owns. After the flyer page, open this week’s flyer. The pack’s eight practice cards give one real-world task per area.
- Let the pictures do some of the work. When reading is slow, the person can point to the item first and read its label second. The drawings are greyscale on purpose, so a plain black and white printer is enough.
- Keep Level 4 for a good day. The two-page sheets ask for a plan, a change and a check. Split them across two sessions if attention fades: the papers one day, the questions the next.
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 a learning disability or developmental disability in supported living or working toward their own place
- Transition and life-skills programs, day programs, and educators working with adult learners
- Families supporting someone in the early stages of dementia who still reads and plans with a little help
The free pages above are two of thirty-two. The full Home & Daily Living set includes all four levels in all eight areas, with an answer page for every worksheet, a cue and progress sheet, eight practice cards and five blank templates. It sits beside Bills, Banking & Paychecks, Health Appointments & Forms and Scam & Online Safety in the life skills collection, and in the Entire Shop Mega Bundle. 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.
