What are Adaptive Skills?

Adaptive skills and behavior describe the way that people meet their basic needs for self-care, decision making, communication, and learning. Adaptive skills help people to have relationships with others, engage in leisure activities, take care of their daily living needs, and solve daily problems. 

Children who display strong adaptive skills are able to make good decisions, display strong coping behaviors, and generally demonstrate the capacity to perform effectively in academic, social, and home settings. They are also capable of age-appropriate independent behavior and are able to show signs of self-direction in play and learning.

Children with poor adaptive skills are often described as immature. They may be dependent upon others for basic needs even when they are old enough typically to take care of these issues for themselves. They may struggle while playing with others; be unable to keep track of schoolwork; and display inappropriate behavior in social, community, and leisure activities.