An ABA treatment plan template with sample goals for communication, daily living, regulation, social play and learning readiness.
✓Goals grouped by skill domain
✓Sample measurable goal wording
✓Built for families, not insurers
Free · No sign-up · Saves in your browser · Built into healhab as “Adaptive, Communication, and Regulation Goal Plan”
What's inside
Current Strengths and Priority Needs
Domain Goal Plan
General Support Principles
Family / Team Priorities
Review and Adjustment Plan
Therapist Sign-off
Preview · 6 sections
Adaptive, Communication, and Regulation Goal Plan
Patient
Patient ID
Date of birth
Plan date
Therapy
Therapist
Source assessment
Next review
Assessment snapshot
Patient caregiver priorities
Current Strengths and Priority Needs
Current Strengths
Priority Needs
Domain Goal Plan
Domain
Goal
What Success Looks Like
Teaching / Support Examples
Where / With Whom
Review Point
Functional communication
Adaptive / daily living
Emotional regulation / coping
Social participation
Learning readiness
General Support Principles
General support principles
Family / Team Priorities
Family team priorities
Review and Adjustment Plan
Review adjustment plan
Therapist Sign-off
Therapist
Designation
Registration
Date
How to fill it in
1
Assessment snapshot
The findings this plan answers, with the report date, strengths and priority areas.
More guidance
Give the assessment findings this plan answers in a few lines, with the date and the report they come from. Mention the main strengths and the priority areas. Readers should be able to see why each domain in the plan is there without opening the assessment.
2
Patient caregiver priorities
The family's goals as they said them, each linked to a plan domain.
More guidance
Write the family's goals as they said them, then note which domain in the plan each one connects to. Ask the person too wherever possible, through speech, pictures or choices. Priorities in Indian households often include school admission, eating with the family, and joining religious or community events; these are valid, specific targets.
3
Current Strengths and Priority Needs
Each strength paired with a need it can support, taken from the assessment.
More guidance
Use the two columns to pair each strength with a need it can support. A child who loves songs may learn routines through song; a child who sorts accurately may learn to set the table. Keep each entry short and take it from the assessment rather than from general expectations.
4
Domain Goal Plan
One or two measurable goals per domain, with what success looks like at home.
More guidance
Write one or two goals per domain. Each goal names the skill, the situation, the level of support, a measurable criterion and a date. Under “What success looks like”, describe the change a parent would notice at home. Under “Where / with whom”, list the people and places so practice spreads beyond the clinic.
5
General Support Principles
How the person learns best, what motivates them, and approaches to avoid.
More guidance
Record the principles that apply across every goal: how the person learns best, reinforcement that works for them, how to give instructions, sensory needs, and approaches the team has agreed to avoid. Keep the wording respectful of how the person communicates and regulates, so new staff pick up the right attitude along with the methods.
6
Family / Team Priorities
Who attends, what the family practises, and who leads each goal.
More guidance
Note how the family and other professionals will be involved: who attends sessions, which routines the family will practise, school contact, and any speech or occupational therapy that overlaps. Agree who leads each goal so the family does not receive conflicting advice from different therapists.
7
Review and Adjustment Plan
When goals are reviewed, with which data, and what happens if progress stalls.
More guidance
State when and how goals will be reviewed, which data will be used, and what happens if a goal is met early or progress stalls. Include the date of the next formal review and who will attend. Simple decision rules written in advance keep reviews focused on evidence.
ABA treatment plan template with sample goals: filled sample
Fictional entries, initials only, showing the level of detail to aim for. Impression and summary sections are left for the treating clinician.
Patient caregiver priorities
Father: “I want her to tell us when something hurts.” A. (picture choice): wants to play on the park swings with her cousins.
Current Strengths and Priority Needs
Strength: copies actions in action songs. Priority need: following a three-step handwashing routine.
Domain Goal Plan
Functional communication: [Name] will ask for a break using a card or the word “break” in 4 of 5 opportunities during table work, with no more than a gestural prompt, by [date]. At home: asks for a break during homework instead of leaving the room.
General Support Principles
Give one instruction at a time with a picture. Wait for a response before repeating. Offer a movement break every 15 minutes. Do not ask for eye contact as a sign of listening.
Family / Team Priorities
Mother attends Saturday sessions and practises dressing goals daily. Speech therapist leads on spoken words; behaviour therapist leads on picture exchange; both use the same picture set.
Review and Adjustment Plan
Review every 12 weeks with parents and the supervising clinician. A goal met in three consecutive sessions moves to maintenance and a check in a new setting.
ABA treatment plan vs school IEP
ABA treatment plan
School IEP
Written by
The behaviour therapy team with the family
The school team, often the special educator with parents
Focus
Skills across home, clinic and community
Learning and participation at school
Settings
Wherever therapy and family practice happen
Classroom, playground and school routines
Review
At planned therapy reviews
At the school's review points, often each term
How they connect
Relevant goals shared with the school, with consent
Can adopt strategies from the therapy plan
Tips and mistakes to avoid
Do
Keep five to eight active goals, which a family can support more easily than twenty.
Build at least one goal around something the person loves.
Ask of every goal: whose priority is it, and how does it improve this person's life?
Use the family's words for routines, such as “getting ready for school”.
With consent, share relevant goals with the school's special educator.
Avoid
Copying goals from a goal bank without changing the criterion or setting.
Writing goals about adult actions, such as “therapist will model requests”.
Leaving the “What success looks like” column blank.
Setting review dates and then missing them.
About this treatment plan
An ABA treatment plan template organises a person's therapy goals by domain, showing what success looks like, how each skill will be taught, where and with whom it will be practised, and when it will be reviewed. This one covers functional communication, adaptive skills, emotional regulation, social participation and learning readiness on a single editable table.
After an initial assessment, to agree goals
When priorities span communication, self-care and regulation
At a review, to retire mastered goals
When a new therapist takes over
Read more
The treatment plan follows the assessment and sets out what the team will teach over the next few months, in language the family can follow. The team revisits it at each progress review.
This is a clinical plan for families and the therapy team. US behavior treatment plans add payer and hours fields, which this one leaves out. Write a BIP alongside it for specific behaviours of concern.
Questions
What is an ABA treatment plan?+
A written plan of the skills a person will work on in behaviour therapy, organised by domain, with measurable goals, teaching methods, settings and review dates. It follows an assessment and is updated at each review.
Is there a filled sample of this treatment plan?+
Each section guide shows a fictional sample entry, using initials only, including a sample communication goal. The assessment snapshot has guidance only, because it comes from your own report, and every goal needs this person's baseline.
Is this an insurance treatment plan?+
No. It is a clinical plan for families and the therapy team, without payer fields or hours-justification sections. If a funder requires its own format, copy the goals and data into that format.
How many goals should an ABA treatment plan have?+
Enough to cover the family's priorities without spreading effort too thin. Many clinics keep five to eight active goals and add new ones as others are met.
Which domains does the plan cover?+
Functional communication, adaptive and daily living skills, emotional regulation and coping, social participation, and learning readiness. Add or remove rows to fit the person.
Where can I find ABA goal examples?+
The ABA and behaviour therapy goal examples page has more, grouped by skill area. In healhab, this plan is a built-in starter that clinics can adapt in Template Studio.
What is the difference between a treatment plan and a BIP?+
The treatment plan covers skill goals across the whole day. A BIP focuses on one to three behaviours of concern, the skills that replace them, and how adults respond. Many children have both.
