Early intervention plan template with sample goals
An early intervention plan template that ties each family goal to a daily routine, a lead therapist, and a review date.
✓Goals written from family priorities
✓One lead therapist per goal
✓Worked sample of a functional goal
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What's inside
Strengths to Build On
Goals by Developmental Area
Therapy Schedule and Team Roles
Family Coaching and Home Strategies
Coordination With School, Preschool, or Other Providers
Review Plan
Therapist Sign-off
Preview · 7 sections
Child Development Team Goal Plan
Patient
Patient ID
Date of birth
Plan date
Therapy
Therapist
Source assessment
Next review
Assessment snapshot
Family priorities in their words
Strengths to Build On
Strengths to build on
Goals by Developmental Area
Area
Functional Goal
Starting Point
What Success Looks Like
Home Routine to Practise In
Lead Therapist
Review
Communication
Motor
Play and learning
Social-emotional
Self-help
Therapy Schedule and Team Roles
Service
Frequency
Setting
Team Member
Family Coaching and Home Strategies
Family coaching plan
Coordination With School, Preschool, or Other Providers
Coordination plan
Review Plan
Review plan
Therapist Sign-off
Therapist
Designation
Registration
Date
How to fill it in
1
Assessment snapshot and family priorities
Link back to the assessment, then number the family's priorities in their own words.
More guidance
Open with three or four sentences linking back to the assessment: its date, who assessed, the main strengths, and the areas the family and team agreed to focus on. Then record the family's priorities in their own words, numbered in the order they give them. If a parent says 'we want her to eat with us at the table', keep that sentence. Goals written from the family's words are the ones that get practised.
2
Strengths to Build On
Child and family strengths specific enough to plan a goal activity around.
More guidance
List strengths of the child and of the family that goals can use: interests, people the child is drawn to, routines that already go well, and family resources such as a grandparent at home all day or an older cousin who loves to play. Each strength should be specific enough to plan an activity around.
3
Goals by Developmental Area
One functional goal per row: routine, help needed, starting point, lead, and review date.
More guidance
Write one functional goal per row: what the child will do, in which routine, with what help, and how the family will know. The starting point is what the child does now, taken from the assessment. Success should be observable, with how often, with whom, and where. Add the home routine, the lead therapist, and a review date. A few goals practised every day will do more than a long list.
4
Therapy Schedule and Team Roles
Each service with frequency, setting, and named therapist, plus the family's coordinator.
More guidance
List each service with its frequency, setting (centre, home visit, video, or preschool), and the named team member. Name the coordinator, who is the family's single point of contact. Write joint sessions, such as speech and OT together at a mealtime, on one line so they are not counted twice. Be realistic about what the family can attend once travel and working hours are counted.
5
Family Coaching and Home Strategies
Which strategies the team will coach, in which routines, with whom, and in what language.
More guidance
Describe how the team will coach the family: which strategies, in which routines, who will be coached (parent, grandparent, or helper), and how practice will be checked. Keep strategies few and concrete, and note the language each will be used in at home. A separate parent coaching plan can hold the session-by-session detail.
6
Coordination With School, Preschool, or Other Providers
Who else works with the child, what is shared, how often, and the family's consent.
More guidance
Record who else works with the child, such as a preschool teacher, paediatrician, or therapist at another centre, and what will be shared, how often, and with what family consent. Write practical points: which goal the preschool can support and who will visit or call. Record what a school has agreed to do, without committing it to services on its behalf.
7
Review Plan
The review date, who meets, what evidence is used, and what prompts an earlier review.
More guidance
Set a review date and say what will happen: who meets, what will be looked at (session notes, the family's log, videos), and how the family will contribute. Agree what would prompt an earlier review, such as a goal met early, a health change, or a request from the family. Choose an interval that suits the child and the family's schedule, and write the actual date.
Early intervention 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.
Assessment snapshot and family priorities
Family priorities, in their words: 1. 'We want him to tell us what he wants instead of crying.' 2. 'He should sleep in his own bed.' 3. 'Paati needs help at bath time because he runs away.'
Strengths to Build On
J. watches his older cousin closely and copies her in play. Loves bubbles and clapping songs. Father works from home two afternoons a week and has offered to take over the bath routine.
Goals by Developmental Area
Communication. During snack time at home, T. will ask for more using a sign, word, or picture without a physical prompt at most snack times over a week, as reported by his mother and seen in two sessions. Starting point: reaches and cries. Lead: speech therapist. Review: 12 weeks.
Therapy Schedule and Team Roles
Speech therapy with parent coaching, weekly at the centre, Ms R. Occupational therapy, fortnightly home visits focused on bath and dressing, Mr V. Family's main contact: Ms R.
Family Coaching and Home Strategies
Coach mother and grandmother on waiting and offering two choices at snack time, in Telugu. Mother will send one short snack-time video each week for feedback at the next session.
Coordination With School, Preschool, or Other Providers
Preschool teacher, Ms D., to use the same 'more' sign at snack time. Speech therapist to visit the preschool once this term, with the family's written consent.
Review Plan
Review on 15 March with parents, grandmother, speech therapist, and OT. Family to bring the snack-time log and two videos. Earlier review if the preschool raises new concerns.
One team goal plan vs a separate plan per therapy
One team goal plan
Separate plan per therapy
Documents the family holds
One
One per discipline
Goals organised around
The child's routines and family priorities
Each therapy's own skill areas
Shared goals
One lead, with supporting disciplines named
Two therapists may write the same goal differently
Home practice
One set of routines and strategies
Several home lists competing for the same time
Review
One meeting with the whole team and family
Separate reviews on different dates
Tips and mistakes to avoid
Do
Keep to the goals the family can practise this term, and add more at the next review.
Read each goal aloud in the family's language, and rewrite any the grandmother cannot follow.
Give every shared goal one lead therapist so the family hears one consistent message.
For working parents, choose routines they are home for, like the evening meal.
Share the plan as a PDF that still makes sense when forwarded to relatives on WhatsApp.
Avoid
Writing goals about therapy-room tasks when the family asked for help with daily life.
Leaving out the starting point, so nobody can tell at review what changed.
Listing services without a coordinator, so the family repeats its story to every therapist.
Agreeing a session frequency the centre cannot staff or the family cannot reach.
About this treatment plan
An early intervention plan sets out what the family wants for their child, the functional goals the team will work on, the daily routines where each goal is practised, and who leads it. This free team goal plan template links every goal to a starting point, a home routine, a lead therapist, and a review date, so the family and team work from one plan.
After an assessment, to agree goals with the family
At review, when goals are met or priorities change
Combining separate therapy plans into one team plan
Before preschool starts, to add goals for that setting
Read more
A team goal plan is the working agreement between a family and a child development team. In the US the closest equivalent is the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP); Indian centres often call it the treatment plan or plan of care.
It is written with the family soon after the assessment, and one coordinator holds it. Every goal line names a home routine, so practice fits the child's day.
Questions
Is this the same as an IFSP?+
It does a similar job. The IFSP belongs to the US early intervention system, which sets its own requirements. This is a general family-centred team plan, and it does not claim to meet any legal or government format.
Is there a filled sample of this early intervention plan?+
Yes. Each section on this page shows a fictional sample entry, using initials only, including a worked functional goal. The plan itself is blank, and choosing goals stays with your team and the family.
How do I write functional early intervention goals?+
Start from a routine the family named, say what the child will do in it and with what help, and how everyone will know it is happening. Our early intervention goal examples page has more, grouped by skill area.
Who should attend the goal planning meeting?+
The parents or main carers, any relative who looks after the child daily, the therapists who will lead goals, and the coordinator. If the child attends preschool, ask the family whether a teacher can join for part of it.
How often should a team goal plan be reviewed?+
Set a date at the meeting that suits the child and family, and review sooner if a goal is met, the child's health changes, or the family asks. Write the date into the plan.
Can each therapist write their own goals in this plan?+
Yes. Each discipline writes the goals it leads under the right developmental area. The coordinator then reads the whole plan for overlap and checks that every goal is in plain language.
Can we use this plan in healhab?+
healhab does not include a child development goal plan starter. A centre can build this structure as its own template in Template Studio and keep the plan with the child's session records and later reports.
