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The Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills (KELS) is an interview and task performance test initially developed for adolescents and adults in short-term psychiatric settings (Kohlman Thomson 1992). Later, the KELS was used with the geriatric population as well as persons with mental retardation, brain injury, and other cognitive impairment (Burnett et al. 2009; Brown et al. 1996). It is designed to be a rapidly and easily administered standardized tool to evaluate both basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADLs). This assessment is germane to the field of occupational therapy because a primary goal of therapists who work in adult rehabilitation is to evaluate and improve those basic and higher level skills that are essential for independent living. The KELS assesses 17 living skills grouped into five major categories of self-care, safety and health, money management, community mobility and telephone, and employment and leisure participation (Kohlman...
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References and Readings
Brown, C., Moore, W. P., Hemman, D., & Yunek, A. (1996). Influence of instrumental activities of daily living assessment method on judgments of independence. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 50, 202–206. doi:10.5014/ajot.50.3.207.
Burnett, J., Dyer, C. B., & Naik, A. D. (2009). Convergent validation of the Kohlman evaluation of living skills as a screening tool of older adults’ ability to live safely and independently in the community. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 90, 1948–1952. doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2009.05.021.
Kohlman McGourty, L. (1978). Kohlman evaluation of living skills. Seattle: KELS Research.
Kohlman McGourty, L. K. (1979). Kohlman evaluation of living skills (2nd ed.). Seattle: KELS Research.
Kohlman Thomson, L. K. (1992). The Kohlman evaluation of living skills (3rd ed.). Bethesda: American Occupational Therapy Association.
Kohlman Thomson, L. K., & Robnett, R. (2016). The Kohlman evaluation of living skills (4th ed.). Bethesda: American Occupational Therapy Association.
Moore, D. J., Palmer, B. W., Patterson, T. L., & Jeste, D. V. (2007). A review of performance based measures of functional living skills. Journal of Psychiatry Research, 41, 97–118.
Robnett, R H., Bliss, S., Buck, K., Dempsey, J., Gilpatric, H., & Michaud, K. (2015). Validation of the safe at home screening with adults who have acquired brain injury. Occupational Therapy in Health Care. 10.3109/07380577.2015.01044691. Advance online publication.
Zimnavoda, T., Weinblatt, N., & Katz, N. (2002). Validity of the Kohlman evaluation of living skills (KELS) with Israeli individuals living in the community. Occupational Therapy International, 9, 312–325.
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Gary, K.W. (2017). Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1841-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1841-3
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