EdQueries is India’s only gamified e-learning platform built for children and young adults with special needs. The Life Skills Hub brings together our most practical, real-world curriculum — the skills that help learners with autism, ADHD, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy live more independently, every single day.
Why Life Skills Matter More Than Academics Alone
Ask any parent of a child with autism or Down syndrome what they worry about most, and you will rarely hear “I’m worried they won’t pass their exams.” What parents actually worry about is this:
- Will my child be able to get dressed by themselves?
- Can they make a cup of tea or prepare a simple meal?
- Will they know what to do if they get hurt?
- Can they handle money at a shop?
- Will they be safe when I’m not there?
These are life skills questions — and they are the right questions to ask.
Research consistently shows that functional independence is one of the strongest predictors of quality of life for adults with autism and other learning needs. Yet most e-learning platforms focus almost entirely on academics. EdQueries is different. Our Life Skills Hub puts practical independence skills at the centre of the learning journey — not as an add-on, but as a core curriculum.
What Is the EdQueries Life Skills Hub?
The EdQueries Life Skills Hub is a structured, gamified collection of 148+ interactive activities (and growing) across the key domains of daily living. Every activity is:
- ✅ Step-by-step — broken into small, manageable tasks that build confidence
- ✅ Visual-first — picture-based instructions that don’t rely solely on reading
- ✅ Culturally Indian — Indian food, clothing, currency, home settings, and seasons
- ✅ Browser-based — works on any laptop, tablet, or smartboard; no app needed
- ✅ Self-paced — unlimited attempts; learners can repeat as many times as needed
- ✅ UDL-aligned — Universal Design for Learning: multiple means of engagement and representation
Our target is 300 Life Skills games by December 2026 — making this the most comprehensive digital life skills curriculum available for special needs learners in India.
Life Skills Learning Areas
The EdQueries Life Skills curriculum is organised across six core domains. Here is what each covers:
🧼 1. Personal Hygiene
Hygiene routines are often a significant challenge for children with autism and sensory sensitivities. Our activities break each routine into small, predictable steps with clear visual sequences:
- Hand Washing — the correct steps, when to wash, how long to wash
- Brushing Teeth — morning and night routines, correct technique
- Bathing and Grooming — sequencing bathing steps; hair care basics
- Nail Care — recognising when nails need cutting; safety basics
- Toilet Hygiene — private body safety and cleanliness routines
Why it matters: Consistent hygiene routines reduce sensory overload by making each step predictable. Children who master hygiene routines show significantly reduced carer burden and increased self-esteem.
Best for: Children with autism (ages 4–12), Down syndrome learners, children with ADHD who struggle with routine-following.
👕 2. Dressing Skills
Getting dressed independently is a major milestone — and a genuine daily-life win for both children and families. Our dressing activities use sequencing games and drag-and-drop formats:
- Choosing Clothes — matching clothes to weather, occasion, and season (Indian seasons: summer, monsoon, winter)
- Dressing Sequence — what goes on first? Correct order of clothing items
- Fastening Skills — buttons, zips, velcro; identifying different fastening types
- Folding and Storing — basic clothes care and organisation
- School Bag Packing — what to pack; checking the bag; organising items
Why it matters: Independent dressing reduces morning-routine stress for families, builds body awareness, and is often a target skill in IEPs (Individualised Education Programmes).
Best for: Early childhood learners with autism (ages 3–8); older learners with Down syndrome or multiple disabilities.
🍳 3. Food Preparation & Kitchen Safety
Food preparation games build some of the most valuable real-world skills — and children love them. Our activities use familiar Indian foods and kitchen settings:
- Identifying Kitchen Tools — spoons, bowls, knives (safe vs unsafe), the gas stove
- Simple Food Tasks — making a sandwich, pouring a drink, peeling a banana
- Food Safety — what’s cooked vs raw; foods that need refrigeration; expiry date awareness
- Healthy vs Unhealthy Food — sorting activities using familiar Indian foods (roti, dal, samosa, fruit)
- Meal Planning Basics — choosing items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Why it matters: Cooking and food preparation are essential for adult independence. Pre-vocational food skills also open pathways to hospitality and catering employment.
Best for: Teenagers with autism (12+); young adults with Down syndrome preparing for supported living; vocational pathway learners.
🩹 4. First Aid & Health Awareness
Children with autism and intellectual disabilities often struggle to communicate when they are hurt or unwell. These activities build the awareness and vocabulary to ask for help:
- Recognising Injuries — cuts, bruises, burns; what they look like and what to do
- When to Ask for Help — identifying situations that need adult attention
- Basic First Aid Steps — washing a wound, applying a plaster, not touching eyes after touching germs
- Feeling Unwell — naming feelings (headache, stomachache, fever); who to tell
- Body Safety — private parts; appropriate vs inappropriate touch; saying NO
Why it matters: Knowing when and how to seek help is a critical safety skill. Many children with autism have difficulty identifying pain or communicating discomfort — these activities build that vocabulary directly.
Best for: All learners with special needs, ages 6 and above.
💰 5. Money & Financial Literacy
Money skills are among the most empowering life skills we can teach. All our money activities use Indian currency — coins and notes that children actually encounter daily:
- Identifying Coins and Notes — ₹1, ₹2, ₹5, ₹10 coins; ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, ₹100, ₹500 notes
- Counting Money — adding up coins and notes to reach a total
- Making Change — understanding what change you should receive
- Shopping Basics — matching items to prices; deciding if you have enough money
- Budgeting Introductions — saving vs spending; needs vs wants
Why it matters: The ability to handle money independently is a gateway to community participation — buying a snack, taking a bus, making a purchase. For young adults with autism, this is a core vocational readiness skill.
Best for: Children with Down syndrome (ages 8+); teenagers with autism; young adults in pre-vocational programmes.
🚦 6. Community Safety & Road Sense
Community safety activities prepare children to navigate the world outside their home and school with greater confidence:
- Traffic Signals — red, yellow, green; pedestrian signals; zebra crossing
- Safe Road Crossing — look left, look right; using the footpath
- Strangers and Safety — who is a trusted adult; what to do if lost
- Emergency Numbers — recognising 100 (police), 101 (fire), 108 (ambulance)
- Public Behaviour — appropriate behaviour in shops, buses, parks, and restaurants
Why it matters: Community access is both a quality-of-life goal and a safety imperative. Children with autism who wander or have elopement behaviours particularly benefit from structured safety learning.
Best for: All special needs learners ages 5 and above; especially critical for children with autism who are learning to navigate community settings.
Counting Money
Shopping Basics
How Life Skills Activities Are Designed at EdQueries
Every life skills activity on EdQueries is built around the same core design principles:
| Design Principle | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|
| Task Analysis | Each skill is broken into the smallest possible steps (e.g., hand washing = 7 distinct steps) |
| Visual Supports | Pictures and icons support learners who are pre-literate or non-verbal |
| Sequencing Format | Drag-and-drop ordering games reinforce correct step order without verbal instruction |
| Immediate Feedback | Correct and incorrect responses are flagged instantly — no waiting, no ambiguity |
| Repetition-Ready | Unlimited attempts; games can be replayed until mastery is achieved |
| Indian Context | All images, foods, currency, clothing, and settings are culturally familiar to Indian learners |
| Dual Format | Text-based AND picture-based versions available for most activities (UDL principle) |
Life Skills and the IEP: How to Use EdQueries in Your Child’s Learning Plan
If your child has an Individualised Education Programme (IEP), life skills goals are almost certainly part of it. EdQueries makes it easy to connect digital practice to IEP targets:
- Identify the IEP goal — e.g., “Child will independently complete morning hygiene routine in correct sequence”
- Find the matching EdQueries activity — e.g., Brushing Teeth Sequencing, Hand Washing Steps
- Assign it to the child’s learning plan — activities can be added directly to the learner’s course list
- Track completion — the platform logs every attempt and completion automatically
- Use as evidence — completion data supports IEP review meetings and progress reports
Special educators using the Per-Student institutional plan can create, assign, and monitor life skills activities for each learner individually — making EdQueries a true digital IEP companion.
Life Skills for Different Learner Profiles
Different conditions present different life skills challenges. Here is how our curriculum addresses each profile:
Children with Autism (ASD)
Children with autism often have difficulty with generalisation — they may learn a skill in one setting but not apply it in another. EdQueries’ structured, visual, step-by-step games build routines that transfer more easily to real life. Our social filter games also help with understanding context-appropriate behaviour (e.g., when it’s okay to take food vs when it’s not).
Children with ADHD
ADHD learners often struggle with multi-step tasks and forget routine sequences. Our sequencing games provide repeated, low-pressure practice of daily routines in a game format — which is far more engaging than a written checklist. Short activity durations (5–10 minutes) align with ADHD attention spans.
Children with Down Syndrome
Learners with Down syndrome typically have strong social motivation and respond well to visual learning. Money skills and community safety are particularly high-priority for this group, as they often have goals around supported employment and community participation. Our step-by-step money activities use familiar Indian currency throughout.
Children with Cerebral Palsy
For learners with cerebral palsy, the cognitive understanding of life skills is often intact even when physical execution is difficult. Our digital activities build the cognitive map of each skill — what the steps are, why they matter, what comes next — which supports real-world practice with carer assistance.
Life Skills + Vocational Skills: The Transition Pathway
Life skills are not just for children — they are the foundation of adult independence and employability. At EdQueries, our Life Skills Hub connects directly to our Vocational Skills curriculum for young adults (16+):
| Life Skill | Vocational Pathway It Supports |
|---|---|
| Food Preparation | Catering, hospitality, canteen work |
| Money Handling | Retail, cashier roles, market stalls |
| Hygiene & Grooming | All workplace settings; health and care sector |
| Following Instructions | Office assistance, assembly tasks, delivery support |
| Community Safety | Independent travel training; community participation |
| Organising & Packing | Warehousing, office filing, stocking shelves |
This transition from Life Skills to Vocational Skills is a structured pathway on EdQueries — not a gap learners have to bridge on their own.
How to Use the Life Skills Hub at Home
You do not need to be a special educator to use these activities effectively. Here is a simple home routine that works:
- Pick one life skill area per week — start with hygiene or dressing, as these have immediate daily impact
- Do one activity per day — 10–15 minutes is enough; consistency matters more than duration
- Watch the activity with your child first — go through it together before asking them to do it independently
- Connect digital to real — after completing the “Hand Washing Steps” game, immediately practice the real hand wash together
- Celebrate every win — completing an activity independently, even digitally, is a genuine achievement worth acknowledging
👉 Try the Life Skills Hub free — access 143 activities with no credit card needed.
How Schools Use the Life Skills Hub
Special schools and therapy centres across India use EdQueries’ Life Skills curriculum as a structured digital supplement to their classroom programmes. Trusted partner schools include Antharbhaava, Kilkaari, Muskaan PAEPID, Amogh Trust, and Akshadhaa Foundation.
Schools particularly value:
- Smartboard delivery — life skills activities display beautifully on interactive whiteboards for group instruction
- Individual tracking — in per-student mode, each learner’s progress through life skills activities is recorded and reportable
- IEP alignment — activities can be selected to match specific IEP life skills targets for each student
- Parent homework bridge — schools assign specific activities for families to practice at home, creating consistency between school and home routines
👉 Contact us for a school demo or to set up an institutional account.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what age should life skills training begin?
As early as possible — ideally from age 3 or 4 for foundational skills like hygiene and dressing. The earlier routines are established, the more automatic they become. EdQueries has activities suitable from early childhood all the way through to young adulthood.
Are the life skills activities suitable for non-verbal children?
Yes. Most life skills activities use visual formats — picture sequences, drag-and-drop sorting, and image-based matching — that do not require the child to read or speak. Non-verbal learners can engage fully with the visual content.
How is this different from just showing YouTube videos?
EdQueries activities require the child to actively respond — dragging items into the correct sequence, selecting the right answer, completing a sorting task. This active engagement builds genuine learning and memory consolidation in a way that passive video watching does not. Progress is also tracked automatically, so you can see what your child has mastered.
Can I use EdQueries alongside an occupational therapist?
Absolutely. Many families share their child’s EdQueries activity list with their occupational therapist so that digital practice and hands-on therapy reinforce each other. OTs often use the platform to introduce or reinforce specific tasks between sessions.
Is the content in English only?
Most life skills activities are visual and do not rely heavily on language — making them accessible across language backgrounds. We also offer Hindi language content (350+ activities) and are expanding regional language support.
What devices do I need?
EdQueries works on any laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartboard with an internet connection and a modern browser. No app installation is required. We recommend a screen size of 10 inches or larger for the best experience.
Start Building Independence Today
Every small step toward independence is a giant leap for your child’s future. Whether it’s washing hands correctly, counting coins at a shop, or knowing which clothes to wear in the rain — these skills compound over time into a life of greater confidence, dignity, and choice.
EdQueries was built to make this possible — for every child, in every home and school across India, regardless of ability level or learning diagnosis.
EdQueries is an EdTech initiative by EdQueries LLP, Bengaluru. We are committed to evidence-based, culturally relevant, inclusive education for all learners with special needs. For enquiries: customer.support@edqueries.com | +91 76249 50707
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