Avoid These Goals for Autistic Kids

We need to talk about goals that suck.

I have seen goals that make me want to bang my head against the wall because they are THAT bad.

And you’re probably sitting there thinking…

Well, why are you complaining, Jessie? 

Why don’t you teach us about goals that are great INSTEAD of goals that suck??

But the thing is…

We NEED to talk about these sucky goals. Because it’s the only way we’re going to be able to make the shift. 

Just teaching the “right way” isn’t enough. We need to teach WHY these goals are written the WRONG way….because if we don’t, they’re just going to keep getting written.

So, here’s what happened.

A few weeks ago I was sent a report for a client of mine from her preschool center. And when I read her goals I didn’t know if I wanted to scream or cry. They were that bad. And when I say bad, I don’t just mean they were not ND affirming. I mean, they were actually harmful. They were doing more harm than good. 

I know that’s hard to fathom because you would think any therapy surely must be good therapy, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, wrong. 

We’ve really got to watch the goals we write. Because whether or not you can believe it, we have a major influence over how a child’s life turns out. Our goals truly matter.

Do you want to turn kids into compliance-driven, high masking kids who don’t speak up for themselves?? I didn’t think so.

So…do you want to hear exactly what these goals were?

Here are just a few: 

Client will decrease protesting to 2x per day...

Client will tolerate songs for 5 seconds...

Client will tolerate denied access to requested items...

I could keep going. There were more. But that isn't the point.

The point is that some of these goals can actually cause REAL harm. 

So what goals should we write instead?

We need to focus on goals that support total communication, are relationship-based, and honor sensory needs. 

If you want to hear more about how to write goals that don't suck, check out this episode of my live show: >> Making the Shift, Episode 70, Avoid These Goals For Autistic Kids

I’ve included an exclusive free handout with my top guidelines for writing speech therapy goals for Autistic kids in the caption of the video!