How is the goal bank organised?
By therapy, then by skill area. Never by age, because examples are not expectations.
Read more
Goals are grouped by therapy and then by skill area, such as requesting, fine motor control, self-care, regulation, transfers or walking outdoors. Two children of the same age can need very different goals, and age-labelled lists invite people to treat examples as expectations.
Each skill area opens with a short note on what it covers and how progress is usually measured. The SMART goal builder helps you rework any example.
How do you write a SMART therapy goal?
Name who, the skill, the situation, the support, the criterion and the review date.
- Who: the person, written as [Name] until you adapt it.
- Skill: one observable action, such as "request help using a two-word phrase".
- Situation: where and when, such as snack time at home or the classroom line.
- Support: the level of help expected, from independent to physical guidance.
- Criterion: how well and how often, such as 4 out of 5 opportunities.
- Date: when you will review it, usually the next progress report.
Read more
SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. In therapy that comes down to six parts you can see in the sentence.
What does a vague goal look like once it is measurable?
"Will improve feeding" becomes a goal naming the action, the meal, the help given and the count.
Read more
Take a fictional child, R., whose family says mealtimes are hard. "R. will improve feeding skills" tells nobody what to watch for. A measurable version: "By [date], R. will scoop food with a spoon and bring it to the mouth with minimal spills during lunch at home, with one verbal reminder, in 4 out of 5 meals across a week."
Should goals be functional or impairment-based?
Use both. The functional goal explains why the impairment goal matters.
Read more
Impairment goals target a body function or underlying skill, such as shoulder range of movement or one speech sound in words. Functional goals target daily life, such as reaching a high shelf or asking a shopkeeper for an item. Most therapists use both.
Families find functional goals easier to support at home. If a goal only makes sense in the therapy room, ask what change at home, school or work it should lead to, and write that goal too.
How do short-term and long-term goals fit together?
Short-term goals are the rungs of a ladder that leads to the long-term goal.
Read more
A long-term goal describes where you hope the person will be after a block of therapy, often months away. Short-term goals, also called objectives, are the steps there, each reviewed over a few weeks. Each step changes the support, the setting or the criterion until the long-term goal is in reach.
How do you involve families in setting goals?
Ask what a better week looks like, find out who handles each routine, and use their words.
Read more
Ask the family what a better week would look like before you write anything. In many Indian homes, grandparents, an aunt or a house help handle meals, bathing or the school walk. Write goals around those routines, and note home languages: a skill in Tamil, Hindi or Bengali at home may matter more than in English.
Share goals in short, plain sentences. Families pass messages on to relatives, so a goal that makes sense without a therapist explaining it is more likely to be practised.
