sample speech and language goals for middle school students

Middle School Language Goals

by sashabro89 | Jan 5, 2021 | syntax , Uncategorized | 3 comments

I don’t know about you but when I first started working in middle school, I was tough to transition from elementary to secondary level speech & language goals. Students in middle and high school are spending less time reading narrative or stories and more reading expository non-fiction texts. They are “reading to learn” and need goals that target vocabulary, complex syntax, and grammatical structures needed for writing assignments as well. So without much further ado…. I present some of my goals for middle school. One note: my goals tend to be more broad and have a lot of sub-goals within them but you can also break off each sub-component into a goal of its own depending on your style. Alternative, you can use my goals and write objectives for each component as well.

Sentence Combining / Complex Sentences : Given 2-3 simple sentences presented verbally and in writing, _____ will combine the aforementioned sentences into one grammatically-correct complex sentence in 80% of opportunities across 3 data probes.

Complex Sentences : ________ will say or write a complex sentence with correct syntax and grammar in 8 out of 10 opportunities with minimal (1-2) cues from the Speech and Language Pathologist across 3 data probes.

Multiple Meaning Words/Complex Sentences : Given a multiple meaning word, _____ will be able to provide at least 2 different meanings of the target word and then appropriately use said word in at least 2 different complex sentences with appropriate grammar and sentence structure with 80% accuracy across three data probes.

Complex Sentences : Given orally-presented passages, ____ will answer WH-questions about complex sentences containing passive voice, negatives, adverbial phrases, and/or relative clauses within said passages with 80% accuracy, averaged over three sessions.

Complex Sentences : Given a target word, _____ will use subordinating conjunctions (e.g., because, before) and conjunctive adverbs (e.g., instead) to formulate grammatically-correct complex sentences in sentence completion tasks with 80% accuracy, averaged across three sessions.

Vocabulary:

Tier 2 Words : Given a set of tier 2 vocabulary words, ______ will be able to generate definitions, generate associated words, explain the target words’ meanings in a reading or a verbal sentence context, and produce logical and semantically meaningful sentences with said tier 2 words in 80% of opportunities across 3 data probes.

Multiple Meaning Words : Given a multiple meaning word, ____ will be able to provide at least 2 different meanings of the target word and then appropriately use said word in at least 2 different complex sentences with appropriate grammar and sentence structure with 80% accuracy across three data probes.

Affixes/Roots/Context Clues : Given structured language activities, ____ will identify prefixes/suffixes, identify common roots in words, and determine meaning of words based on context cues accurately in 80% of presented opportunities with minimal prompts and cues from the clinician across three data probes.

Comprehension of Text:

Vocabulary/Syntax : After listening to a 1-3 paragraphs of text, _______ will answer questions about the meaning of complex sentences and key vocabulary within said passage with 80% accuracy across 3 data probes.

Reading Comprehension Strategies : Given a 1-5 paragraph text read aloud, ____ will demonstrate the ability to use the following compensatory strategies to aid her comprehension: identifying key words and definitions, rereading or requesting a reread of the text, paraphrasing, identifying context clues, and questioning in 80% of opportunities across 3 data probes.

Figurative Language/Sarcasm : During structured language support activities, ____ will increase his comprehension and use of figurative language by describing presented examples of sarcasm and humor with 80% accuracy measured across 3 sessions.

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Middle School Speech Therapy Goals

April 13, 2023

For some speech-language pathologists, two of the most frightening words in the English language are “middle” and “school.” But it doesn’t have to be this way! In this post, I’ll share guiding principles for choosing middle school speech therapy goals, as well as ideas for content areas that are particularly important to target for many students in this age group.

Principles for Selecting Middle School Speech Therapy Goals

In any discussion about middle school, there’s one word that often comes up: awkward. As adults who support these students, we might feel awkward too! We ask ourselves questions like, “Should we keep playing games in therapy? Should we continue articulation goals? What’s the best way to collaborate with teachers and parents?” There is no one right answer to any of these questions, but there are some general principles that can help us make effective decisions.

Middle School Speech Therapy Goals—Principle One: Prioritize Connection

If it feels helpful, try thinking back to your middle school experiences. Although they were likely different from those of your clients, there are probably some commonalities, including a need for belonging. One of our greatest opportunities as SLPs is our ability to support a greater sense of belonging for our students. We need to be aware of our scope of practice, and collaborate with/refer to psychology colleagues as necessary, but effective communication is a powerful tool for increased feelings of connection, and working with communication is what we do!

The process of writing goals that prioritize connection varies from student to student. We might not use the word “connection” in our goals, but we can change our methods of data collection and use more rubrics and student reports. We can ask students how they feel when they use the strategies we work on in therapy, including what seems to help and what doesn’t.

Also, knowing that for most students, we can’t write a goal addressing every single area of challenge, we can use the “connection test” to help us narrow our focus. When choosing between multiple possible targets, this means prioritizing the targets most likely to support a student’s ability to connect socially.

Middle School Speech Therapy Goals—Principle Two: Prioritize Self-advocacy

Academically, one of the biggest challenges students encounter when transitioning to middle school is having multiple teachers and classrooms. As students navigate this change, their self-advocacy skills become increasingly important, and we can support them by writing goals with a self-advocacy focus. For example, if a student stutters, we might write a goal related to the student educating their teacher about stuttering and how to respond to moments of stuttering (instead of writing a goal about reducing disfluencies).

Prioritizing self-advocacy also means that we get serious about student involvement in selecting middle school speech therapy goals. We need to write goals that our clients find personally relevant, and the only way to do that is to get their input.

Prioritizing self-advocacy can also involve difficult conversations, particularly with our middle school students who have articulation goals. We can show them the respect of asking questions like, “How much does it bother you that this sound is still tricky? How much time do you spend practicing at home? Do you want to keep working on this sound?”

Middle School Speech Therapy Goals—Principle Three: Prioritize Transition Readiness

While we need to meet students where they are in the present, it’s also important to be mindful of their past and future transitions. If a middle school student is new to your caseload, take a quick look at their past IEPs/treatment plans and see how long they have been working on any goals that they come to you with. Given high SLP turnover in some settings, many students’ clinicians don’t have a full picture of their treatment history, and goals can slip through from year to year that are no longer necessary.

It’s also critical to look to the future. These students will soon be transitioning to high school. Writing goals with this reality in mind helps us stay focused on prioritizing the very most relevant and supportive skill target areas.

Key Content Areas for Middle School Goals

When selecting goals, our ultimate guide is the student—what do their assessment results reveal? What challenges have the greatest impact on their lives? However, we often identify many potential goals, and can’t target all of them. In these cases, there are some themes that emerge from the Common Core standards and middle school curriculum areas to guide us.

Collaborative Discussions

In middle school, students are increasingly expected to engage in small-group and whole-class discussions. They are asked to listen to their classmates, ask questions, and build on others’ contributions. Goals related to growing these skills are likely to have a positive impact on students across the school day and beyond.

Bringing the Evidence

As students transition to and through middle school, they will need to offer substantive evidence for the claims that they make in discussions and written work. With these requirements in mind, middle school is a great time to write goals related to evaluating evidence, fact vs. opinion, “why” questions, and research skills.

Vocabulary Knowledge

In middle school, there is an increase in the variety and complexity of vocabulary used by teachers and texts. When writing vocabulary goals, it can be useful to prioritize the use of strategies such as prefixes/suffixes and context clues to identify unfamiliar words.

Going Below the Surface

In middle school, students will find an increased emphasis on abstract ideas and figurative language. For our neurodivergent literal thinkers in particular, this shift can be overwhelming and distressing, and writing goals related to explicit instruction in these areas can be very useful.

No matter which goals you choose, know that as an SLP, you have the opportunity to be a bright spot of connection and safety for students who are going through a period of life that feels scary and, yes, awkward. Embrace it!

Want to stay in the loop for new speech therapy ideas and inspirations? I have put together a free Digital SLP podcast to share insight and tips on implementing your speech therapy sessions. If you are looking for fun and interactive speech therapy materials that students and SLPs both will love, check out what the Digital SLP® membership site has to offer, or sign up for our free trial now. Alternatively, check out our TpT store .

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sample speech and language goals for middle school students

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Speech Therapy Goal Bank for Middle School [grades 6-8]

Description

Are you finding it difficult to write speech therapy goals for your older students? This freebie includes over 80 goal areas. The following areas are included in this download:

Word-finding
receptive & expressive language
pragmatic language
comprehension
figurative language

Articulation

Follow me on instagram to check out therapy ideas to use with your older students! @detigdialect

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Literacy Based Therapy

Speech Sounds

The Bookshelf

Resource library, smart goal bank: elementary.

Goal writing can be tricky sometimes, especially when we are trying to figure just how we want to tackle a skill deficit. Luckily, for some nerdy reason ?, goal writing is my JAM! I always write following a S.M.A.R.T goal format Also SMART Goal Bank. Below you will find examples of Objectives/Short Term (ST) goals.

Please feel free to use any of these as a base to create goals for your students but be sure to align the goals to your student’s timeline and ability ??

Helpful posts to check out before you read: Prompts and Cues…yes, they are different

I have several resources geared to goal writing and data collection. If you feel shaky on goals you may want to check out this mini-course . You can follow my TpT store to make sure you don’t miss any new additions as well as Instagram and Facebook where I frequently share lots of data and goal tips.

TIP: When writing goals for lists ( vocab, categories, labeling, etc ) explicitly state the targeted words you are going to work on in the notes section of the IEP! This will make your data collection a breeze since you will know what to target. If the students masters the list, high five! Create a new list, discuss it will parents ( and IEP team if necessary), complete an amendment to the IEP and keep on rolling.

Expressive Language: SMART Goal Bank

When presented with a targeted picture, STUDENT will accurately label the picture with no more than two verbal or visual prompt/cues with 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
When presented with a visual field of 4 pictures, STUDENT will accurately label the picture stated by the clinician with no additional prompts or cues and 70% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
After being shown a picture scene, STUDENT will state the locations of various objects by correctly using spatial basic concepts terms with no more than two verbal or visual prompts/cues and 70% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
When presented with a picture of a targeted object, STUDENT will accurately state the function of the object with no more than one verbal/visual prompt or cue with 60% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
When verbally told a list of 3 items, STUDENT will state the accurate category that the items belong to with no more than two verbal or visual prompts/cues and 70% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
When told given a targeted category, STUDENT will state at least different items that would be included in the category with no additional prompts or cues and 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
After being told a targeted word, STUDENT will state a correct synonym for the word with no more than two verbal or visual prompts/cues and 60% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
After being told a targeted word, STUDENT will state a correct antonym for the word with no more than two verbal or visual prompts/cues and 60% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
After being presented with pictures of two items, STUDENT will accurately state at least one way the items are similar with no more than one verbal or visual prompt/cue and 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
After being presented with pictures of two items, STUDENT will accurately state at least one way the items are different with no more than one verbal or visual prompt/cue and 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
After being shown a picture of an object, STUDENT will describe the object by stating at least three different characteristics with no more than one verbal or visual prompt/cue and 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
When discussing a picture scene or event in the past tense, STUDENT will accurately utilize past tense verbs in sentences with no more than verbal or visual prompt/cue and 60% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE: SMART Goal Bank

STUDENT will accurately complete two-step directions with no more than one verbal or visual prompt/cue with 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.
After being read or reading academically appropriate information, STUDENT will identify the correct answer from 3 multiple choice options with no additional prompts/cues with 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.

SEMANTICS: SMART Goal Bank

-STUDENT will utilize context clue strategies to determine the meaning of unknown words in sentences with no additional prompts/cues and 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.

-When given a targeted vocabulary word, STUDENT will correctly state the meaning of the word with no additional prompts/cues with 75% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.

– When given a multiple-meaning word, STUDENT will state at least two different meanings of the word with no more than one verbal or visual prompt/cues with 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions.

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75+ Receptive Language Goals Speech Therapy {Goal Bank}

If you’re a speech therapist looking for a massive list of receptive language goals for speech therapy this blog post is for you!

Below is a goal bank that you can use for your receptive language delay and hopefully make your workday a little easier today.

Visual Prompts

Using visual cues, such as a picture of an object when working on a child’s receptive language skills can be very helpful for our students with receptive language difficulties. In addition, you can use a helpful verbal cue or verbal prompts to help guide your student to the correct response.

Expressive Language Skills – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

If you’re a Speech Language Pathologist and are also in need of some IEP goals for an expressive language disorder be sure to check out my complete expressive language therapy goals over at my IEP goal bank.

Long-Term Goals – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

Below is a list of IEP goals for students diagnosed with a receptive language disorder. Perfect for my fellow Speech-Language Pathologist working in the school setting or private practice settings.

Given 10 common nouns, STUDENT will identify the correct noun by pointing to the appropriate picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 10 common verbs, STUDENT will identify the correct verb by pointing to the appropriate picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 10 common adjectives, STUDENT will identify the correct adjective by pointing to the appropriate picture (size, shape, color, texture) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 3 to 5 pictures, STUDENT will identify the given category items by pointing/grouping pictures into categories with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Following Directions

Given manipulatives (e.g., common objects, paper, pencil, scissors), STUDENT will follow a 1-step direction with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given manipulatives (e.g., object, paper, pencil, scissors), STUDENT will follow 2-step directions with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 2-step directions, STUDENT will follow the directions with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given manipulatives (e.g., object, paper, pencil, scissors), STUDENT will follow 3-step directions with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 3-step directions, STUDENT will follow the directions with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given manipulatives (e.g., object, paper, pencil, scissors), STUDENT will follow multi-step directions with location modifiers (i.e., spatial concepts) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given manipulatives (e.g., object, paper, pencil, scissors), STUDENT will follow multi-step directions with quantity modifiers (i.e., numbers, more/less) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given manipulatives (e.g., object, paper, pencil, scissors), STUDENT will follow multi-step directions with quality modifiers (i.e., size, color, shape) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given manipulatives (e.g., object, paper, pencil, scissors), STUDENT will follow multi-step directions with pronoun modifiers (i.e., he, she, him, her, they, them) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given verbal or written directions, STUDENT will identify the action words in the directions (e.g., “Read the book”…the action word is read) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given verbal directions, STUDENT will follow conditional directions (e.g., “If you are wearing a red shirt, stand up.”) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Answering Questions

Given a story, activity, or classroom discussion, STUDENT will answer “yes or no” questions with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story, activity, or classroom discussion, STUDENT will answer a WH- question or multiple questions (i.e., who, what, when, where, why, how) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a verbal prompt, STUDENT will select and hand the clinician the requested object or picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 3 objects or pictures at a time, STUDENT will select and hand the clinician the requested object or picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 5 objects or pictures at a time, STUDENT will select and hand the clinician the requested object or picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 5 objects or pictures at a time and given a function, STUDENT will point to the appropriate object or picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 5 action pictures at a time and given an action, STUDENT will point to the appropriate action picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Association

Given 5 objects or pictures at a time (e.g., ball, bat, car, fork, and ring) and asked what item is associated with … (e.g., with a seatbelt), STUDENT will select an item that is associated with the objects or pictures (e.g., car) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a word verbally, STUDENT will point to the appropriate object or picture associated with that word (e.g., ball/bat, fork/plate) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Categorizations

Given a category, STUDENT will correctly sort objects/pictures in that category with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 3 items in a category and 3 categories to choose from, STUDENT will correctly sort objects/pictures into the appropriate category with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 3 different categories, STUDENT will correctly sort objects/pictures into each different category with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Similarities

Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures, STUDENT will select 2 similar objects or pictures with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 3 to 5 words verbally, STUDENT will select 2 similar words with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Differences

Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 1 object or picture that does not share that same attribute with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 3 to 5 words and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 1 word that does not share that same attribute with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Multiple Meaning Words

Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and a multiple-meaning word, STUDENT will select 2 objects or pictures that represent different meanings of that word with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a multiple-meaning word verbally, STUDENT will select 2 correct meanings from a group of 4 written choices with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 10 objects or pictures and a verbal description of a word, STUDENT will select the correct object or picture to match the given verbal description with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given 10 words and a verbal description of a word, STUDENT will select the correct word to match the given verbal description with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Prepositions

Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and a verbal preposition, STUDENT will point to the correct object or picture with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given object(s) and a verbal or written prepositions directive, STUDENT will follow the directions and act out the preposition using the given object(s) (e.g., “Put the doll under the table.”) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a verbal question, STUDENT will select the picture of the noun that tells WHO and WHAT with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story read aloud, STUDENT will select the picture of the noun that tells WHO and WHAT with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a verbal question, STUDENT will select the picture of the verb that tells the action with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story read aloud, STUDENT will select the picture of the verb that tells the action with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a verbal question, STUDENT will select the picture that tells WHERE with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story read aloud, STUDENT will select the picture that tells WHERE with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a verbal question, STUDENT will select the picture that tells HOW with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story read aloud, STUDENT will select the picture that tells HOW with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a two-word phrase that calls attention to an object or picture (e.g., “that car”, “her toy”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that shows the disappearance (e.g., “crackers all gone”, “no cookie”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that shows the recurrence (e.g., “more crackers”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that contains an adjective and a noun (e.g., “red shoe”, “big ball”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that shows possession (e.g., “Dad’s cat”, “girl’s shoe”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that uses action object form (e.g., “Tie shoe”, “read book“), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that indicates the location (e.g., “pencil down”, “car outside”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that uses agent action form (e.g., “boy jump”, “girl eat”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase that shows an emotion (e.g., “girl sad”, “man angry”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given an object or picture and a phrase to achieve a desired end (e.g., “shoe on”, “go home”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase describes the object or picture accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes articles (e.g., “a”, “an”, “the”, and “some”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the articles accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes adjectives (e.g., “this”, “that”, “these”, and “those”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the adjectives accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes plurals (e.g., s, es) and irregular plural nouns , STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the plurals accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes possessive nouns (e.g., “the girl’s bike”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the possessive accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes subject pronouns (e.g., “I”, “he”, “she”, “you”, “we” “they”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the pronoun accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes object pronouns (e.g., “me”, “him”, “her”, “you”, “us”, “them”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the pronoun accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes possessive pronouns (e.g., “my/mine”, “his”, “her/hers”, “your/yours”, “our/ours”, “their/theirs”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the pronoun accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes reflexive pronouns (e.g., “myself”, “himself”, “herself”, “yourself”, “yourselves”, “ourselves”, “themselves”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the pronoun accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes present progressive verb tense (e.g., “The man is running”, “The girls are waving”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the verb tense accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes past progressive verb tense (e.g., “The man was running”, “The girls were waving”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the verb tense accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes present tense “s” and “es” marker (e.g., “The boy jogs”, and “The bee buzzes”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the tense accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes “have” and “has” (e.g., “The boy has a dog”, and “The girls have ice skating”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the tense accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes regular past tense (e.g., “The dog jumped”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the tense accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a phrase or sentence that includes irregular past tense (e.g., “The boy ran”), STUDENT will answer “yes or no” if the phrase or sentence uses the tense accurately with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

If we take a sample goal: Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

“Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 2-3 objects or pictures that do not share that same attribute with 80% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.”

Reduced Number or Trials Required: The objective might be, “Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 1-2 objects or pictures that do not share that same attribute with 80% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.”
Reduce Percentage of Accuracy: The objective might be, “Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 2-3 objects or pictures that do not share that same attribute with 70% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.”
Reduce Difficulty of Task: The objective might be, “Given 2 to 3 objects or pictures and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 1 object or picture that does not share that same attribute with 80% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.”
Reduce Number of Sessions of Accuracy: The objective might be, “Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 2-3 objects or pictures that do not share that same attribute with 80% accuracy over 2 out of 4 consecutive sessions.”

(Meaning out of 4 therapy sessions in a row. They used 3 to 4-word utterances 2 out of 4 or 50% of the time in order to mark that goal mastered.)

As the speech pathologist, you are the specialist and you know your students and child’s ability best though, so just take the goals and simplify them into achievable steps for your child’s specific receptive language weaknesses.

Data Collection – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

If you’re a classroom teacher or speech pathologist in need of data tracking forms while working on your student’s receptive goals for speech-language therapy then be sure to check out my IEP goal data tracking for progress monitoring forms .

Or if you simply want a list of data sheets to choose from then be sure to check out my list of 35 free speech therapy data sheets roundup .

Measurable Goals – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

Are you also looking for other speech goals? If so, be sure to check out my master list of IEP goals here .

This list of goal writing ideas also includes the following speech pathology goals:

Facial Expressions
Body Language
Figurative Language
Final Consonants
Prepositional Phrase
Context Clues
Articulation Goals (Single Word Level, Phrase Level, Sentence Level, and Conversation)
Communication Device – Nonverbal Communication

These are just a few of the possible goal combinations listed on this master list of over 432 IEP goals .

Receptive Language: Free Activities List

Are you in need of additional free receptive language activities? Then you’ve come to the right place because I’ve done the searching for you!

Check out the following free resources for even more activities to help get you started on your child’s receptive language goals.

Complex Sentences

Here are some freebies to work on your child’s complex sentences.

Complex Sentence Guided Practice by Teacher’s Pet Vibes Heather Huffman – Have your students practice how to break down a complex sentence.
Complex Sentence Writing Template {Freebie} by Nicole Allison – Use this writing template to create complex sentences. The best part this freebie comes with 3 different levels!

Expressive Language Difficulties

If you have students who are also working on their expressive language skills be sure to check out these free resources below to help with their expressive language problems.

31 Best Wordless Videos to Teach Problem Solving, Answering WH-Questions, Story Retell/Sequencing, and Making Predictions/Inferences by Speech Therapy Store – This fun activity is perfect for story sequencing and retelling of a story.

133+ Categories List for Speech Therapy by Speech Therapy Store – Working on categorization is another great expressive language skill. Here is a complete list of categories broken down into different levels.

141+ Categories for Concentration {Free Printables!} by Speech Therapy Store – Who doesn’t love the game concentration or memory? Here are 4 free printables to play concentration or memory while working on categorization.

63+ Best Category Games for Speech Therapy by Speech Therapy Store – Check out this list of the best category games for your next therapy session.

35+ Activities to Teach Categories for Speech Therapy by Speech Therapy Store – Here is a list of great activities to use when teaching categorization!

Short Story

Another strategy to work on syntax and receptive language development is to use short stories.

Free Fictional Short Stories for Listening Comprehension by Talking with Rebecca – Use this resource to work on multiple different targets – wh questions, inferences and predictions, or context clues, yes/no questions, and vocabulary.
Short Stories & Pictures Writing Prompts, 2 Writing and 2 Response Options by readfactor club – Grab this free resource and read the short stories and then answer wh questions or practice story retelling.

Answer Questions

If you have any students working on answering questions be sure to check out these free resources.

179+ Free Speech Therapy WH Questions Printable by Speech Therapy Store – You won’t want to miss this awesome free printable pdf with real photos!

197+ WH-Questions Activities List by Speech Therapy Store – If you’re in need of a ton of different daily activities be sure to check out my complete list.

31+ What Questions for Speech Therapy + Wordless Videos by Speech Therapy Store – If you have students working on “what” questions I’ve created 3 interactive quizzes with flash cards that are perfect for my special education students.

31 Best Wordless Videos to Teach Problem Solving, Answering WH-Questions, Story Retell/Sequencing, and Making Predictions/Inferences by Speech Therapy Store – This is one of my all-time favorite resources that I’ve ever made on this website. It’s perfect for a small group setting and it takes a difficult task for some of our students and turns it into a fun activity. This lesson plan was used on a regular basis in my therapy room!

253+ Yes or No Questions for Speech Therapy by Speech Therapy Store – This is a great activity to work on functional communication of answering yes or no questions. It comes with real pictures providing minimal cues to help aid our students’ language development.

Do you have a child or student who loves to play games in therapy? Here are a few of my best resources for games to work on your child or student’s receptive language skills.

29+ Best Speech Therapy Board Games by Speech Therapy Store – You won’t want to miss this list of board games that are perfect for speech therapy along with different ways in which you can use the games within your next therapy session.

21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy and Teletherapy by Speech Therapy Store – Here is a list of my favorite reinforcement games that are all digital resources.

917+ Best Free Boom Cards for Speech Therapy by Speech Therapy Store – If you have a child or student who loves Boom Cards you won’t want to miss this blog post that is divided into different skill areas and has a complete section just for receptive language.

41 Free Online Speech Therapy Activities by Speech Therapy Store – Here is a complete list I created of different online resources that would be perfect for a digital therapy session or for a student who is highly motivated by using the computer for therapy.

Structured Language Activities

The first step I like to use when working on receptive language skills is to start with a structured activity.

Best FREE Interactive PDF for Speech Therapy All-in-One by Speech Therapy Store – This resource is amazing for anyone looking for a complete receptive bundle that covers multiple skills, such as Yes/No Questions, WH-Questions, Pronouns, Synonyms, Antonyms, Categories, Regular/Irregular Past Tense Verbs, Compare/Contrast, Describing/Attributes, & Multiple Meaning Words.

Technology Bundle Freebie by Speech Therapy Store – Here is the same amazing bundle as the one above but this bundle is centered around a technology theme!

Vocabulary Word

If you have students working on their vocabulary skills here are a few resources that you might find helpful for your special needs students.

2,000+ Core Tier 2 Words + PDF List by Speech Therapy Store – Here is an amazing list of tier 2 words divided by grade to give you a great list of vocabulary words to work through.

17 Best Vocabulary Goals for Speech Therapy + Activities by Speech Therapy Store – If you’d love 14 free sample pages of my complete comprehensive treatment plan for tier 2 vocabulary words, you’ll want to check out this blog post!

Correct Sentence

Another fun structured activity is to have your students practice correcting a sentence.

Free Daily Sentence Editing / Correcting Worksheets by The Teaching Rabbit – Have your students practice fixing sentences with these 10 pages.
Freebie Fix Em Up No Prep Sentences for Students to Edit and Correct by Loving Life with Little Learners – Grab this freebie and have your students start correcting the sentences.

Grocery Store

At the high school, I used to work at we had a life skills classroom and we would take the students to the grocery store to work on the child’s unique needs in the real world.

7+ Free Community Outings Printables Life Skills by Speech Therapy Store – This free resource includes a social story, store vocabulary, expected / unexpected behaviors, if/then situations, an activity shopping list example + a blank version, and a community review page.

In Conclusion: Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

I hope you found this list of receptive language goals for speech therapy helpful.

Feel free to spend less time creating your own receptive language goals and copy and paste the above goals.

If you’re a family member wondering if your child has a receptive language delay then be sure to reach out to a local Speech-Language Pathologist to receive more formal assessments.

Want Even More Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy?

917+ Best Free Boom Cards for Speech Therapy
31 Best Wordless Videos to Teach Problem Solving
179+ Free Speech Therapy Wh-Questions Printable
133+ Categories List for Speech Therapy
Best IEP Resources

Want the Best of the Bests?

Be sure to check out our most popular posts below!

21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy / Teletherapy
71+ Free Social Problem-Solving Scenarios
430+ Free Multisyllabic Words List Activity Bundle
432+ Free Measurable IEP Goals and Objectives Bank
279+ Free Speech Therapy Digital Materials

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Speech-Language Pathology IEP Goals: A Complete Guide and Goal Bank

Introduction

Effective communication is the cornerstone of a student's education and overall development. For some students facing unique communication challenges, Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) play a crucial role in paving the way toward proficient communication. Individualized Education Program (IEP ) goals in Speech-Language Pathology serve as powerful tools, uniquely tailored to address each student's specific communication needs. These goals guide educators, therapists, and parents toward a shared destination: empowering students to communicate confidently, express themselves authentically, and navigate both academic and social environments.

In this comprehensive guide we:

Provide practical insights into crafting meaningful objectives
Offer a goal bank with real-world examples
Emphasize collaborative efforts needed to support students on their communication journeys

Understanding Speech-Language Pathology IEP Goals

The term "IEP goals" carries profound significance. An IEP, or Individualized Education Plan, is a personalized blueprint designed to ensure that every student, regardless of their unique challenges, receives an education tailored to their needs. At its heart, IEP goals are the compass guiding this journey, directing educators and specialists toward specific objectives that will help students flourish academically and socially.

Defining IEP Goals: Personalized Pathways to Success

IEP goals are precise, measurable objectives that chart a student's progress in various domains of education. They are not one-size-fits-all; instead, they are meticulously tailored to address the individual strengths and challenges of each student. These goals encompass a wide spectrum of skills, ranging from academic achievements to specialized areas such as Speech-Language Pathology (SLP).

The Role of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP)

Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) offers support for students facing communication difficulties. SLP professionals, known as Speech-Language Pathologists, possess the expertise to diagnose and treat a wide range of speech and language disorders, articulation difficulties, fluency disorders, voice disorders, and more. Their role extends beyond merely helping students articulate words clearly; it encompasses fostering effective communication in all its forms.

The Significance of IEP Goals in Speech-Language Pathology

Within the context of SLP services, IEP goals serve as the foundation upon which Speech-Language Pathologists build their intervention plans. Whether addressing articulation issues, language delays, or social communication challenges, SLPs rely on IEP goals to ensure that their strategies align with the specific needs of each student.

In the sections that follow, we will delve deeper into the art of crafting meaningful and impactful IEP goals in Speech-Language Pathology. We'll explore the intricacies of goal setting, share practical insights into aligning goals with students' unique communication profiles, and provide real-world examples that showcase the transformative power of well-crafted IEP goals.

Certainly! Here's an expanded Section 2 for your blog post on Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) IEP Goals:

The IEP Process: From Referral to Evaluation:

The journey of crafting and implementing Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) IEP goals is intricately woven into the larger landscape of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. Understanding this process, step by step, is essential to appreciate the vital role SLPs play in ensuring students' communication needs are met comprehensively.

The IEP Process Unveiled

The IEP process is a structured approach designed to identify, evaluate, and support students with diverse needs. It encompasses several key stages, each playing a pivotal role in shaping the educational experience of the student.

1.Referral: The process begins with a referral, where a student's unique needs are brought to the attention of educators and specialists. This stage is often initiated by teachers, parents, or other professionals who observe challenges in a student's communication skills.

SLP's Role : Speech-Language Pathologists may be among the first to identify communication difficulties and initiate the referral process. Their expertise in assessing speech and language disorders equips them to identify students who would benefit from SLP services.

2. Evaluation : Following the referral, a comprehensive evaluation is conducted to assess the student's strengths and challenges. This assessment involves a multidisciplinary team , which may include the SLP, working together to gather data, conduct tests, and analyze the student's communication abilities.

SLP's Role : In the evaluation stage, SLPs play a crucial role in assessing the student's speech and language skills. They contribute valuable insights into the nature and extent of communication difficulties, helping to inform the development of IEP goals tailored to the student's needs.

3. Eligibility Determination : Based on the evaluation results, the IEP team determines whether the student is eligible for specialized services. If eligibility is established, the team proceeds to create the student's individualized education plan, which includes SLP-related goals.

SLP's Role : SLPs provide critical input during the eligibility determination process, drawing on their expertise to advocate for students who require speech and language support. Their insights guide the team in making informed decisions about the student's eligibility.

4. Goal Setting : With eligibility confirmed, the IEP team, including the SLP, collaborates to set specific, measurable, and achievable goals for the student. These goals are at the heart of the IEP and serve as the foundation for intervention strategies.

SLP's Role : Speech-Language Pathologists take a lead role in crafting communication-related goals that address the student's individual needs. These goals are designed to enhance the student's speech production, language comprehension, or social communication skills.

5. IEP Implementation : Once the IEP is developed, it is put into action. SLPs work closely with the student, educators, and other professionals to implement the strategies and interventions outlined in the plan.

SLP's Role : SLPs are instrumental in delivering specialized services as outlined in the IEP. They employ evidence-based techniques and interventions to support the student in achieving their communication goals.

6. Progress Monitoring : Regular progress monitoring is essential to ensure that the student is making meaningful strides toward their goals. Adjustments to the IEP may be made based on the student's progress and evolving needs.

SLP's Role : Speech-Language Pathologists play a central role in tracking the student's communication progress. They use assessment data and ongoing observations to gauge the effectiveness of interventions, adapting strategies as necessary.

7. Collaboration: Throughout the IEP process, collaboration is key. This extends not only to the professionals involved but also to parents and caregivers who play a vital role in supporting the student's journey.

SLP's Role : SLPs foster collaboration by engaging with parents and other professionals to ensure a holistic approach to communication support. They provide insights, guidance, and resources to empower families in helping their child succeed.

Crafting Effective SLP IEP Goals

In Speech-Language Pathology (SLP), the path to effective communication starts with clear, purposeful goals. These goals act as guides for educators, specialists, and students, leading them toward proficient communication. To do this effectively, create SMART SLP IEP goals—ones that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

1. Specific : Tailored to the student's unique needs.

2. Measurable : Trackable for progress.

3. Achievable : Realistic and attainable.

4. Relevant: Address specific communication challenges.

5. Time-bound : Set clear deadlines.

Common SLP IEP Goal Areas

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) play a pivotal role in helping students overcome a wide array of communication challenges. To appreciate the breadth of their expertise, let's explore some of the common domains in which SLPs work their magic:

1. Articulation and Phonology

- Goal : Improve the clarity of speech sounds.

- Example : The student will correctly produce the /s/ and /z/ sounds in words and sentences with 80% accuracy in three consecutive therapy sessions.

2. Expressive Language

- Goal : Enhance the ability to express thoughts and ideas.

- Example : The student will use complete sentences to describe a picture or event, incorporating appropriate vocabulary and grammar.

3. Receptive Language

- Goal : Strengthen comprehension skills.

- Example : The student will follow two-step directions in the classroom environment, demonstrating understanding by completing tasks accurately.

4. Fluency (Stuttering)

- Goal: Improve speech fluency and reduce stuttering behaviors.

- Example: The student will employ smooth, uninterrupted speech patterns during oral presentations, with the ability to self-monitor and implement fluency techniques.

- Goal : Enhance vocal quality and resonance.

- Example: The student will use appropriate pitch and volume levels during conversational exchanges, maintaining vocal health and clarity.

6. Social Communication and Pragmatics

- Goal : Develop effective social interaction skills.

- Example : The student will engage in reciprocal conversations with peers, demonstrating turn-taking, active listening, and appropriate body language.

These are just a few of the areas where SLPs make a profound impact. Each goal is carefully tailored to the unique needs of the student, ensuring that interventions address specific challenges while promoting confidence and proficiency in communication.

In the next sections, we'll delve deeper into these domains, providing further insights and practical examples to illuminate the path toward achieving these goals.

IEP Goal Bank for Speech-Language Pathology

Articulation and phonology.

Preschool (Ages 3-5):

The student will correctly produce the /k/ and /g/ sounds in initial and final word positions with 90% accuracy in spontaneous speech, as measured by audio recording and analysis.
The student will reduce tongue thrust patterns, achieving 80% accuracy in structured speech tasks, as measured by audio recording and analysis.

Elementary (Ages 6-8):

The student will use age-appropriate speech sounds when describing pictures, achieving 100% intelligibility among peers, as measured by peer evaluations.
The student will maintain appropriate oral posture for speech production, reducing jaw tension and strain, as measured by an SLP's visual observation.

Middle School (Ages 9-12):

The student will generalize correct /s/ and /z/ sounds from structured activities to conversational speech, as measured by audio recording and analysis.
The student will improve the production of blends (e.g., "bl," "fl," "sn") in words and sentences, achieving 80% accuracy in structured speech tasks, as measured by audio recording and analysis.

Expressive Language

The student will use basic vocabulary to express needs and preferences in sentences with 4-5 words, as measured by language samples.
The student will increase the use of action verbs in spoken sentences and describe sequential events, demonstrating a 100-word vocabulary, as measured by language samples.
The student will construct complex sentences with conjunctions (e.g., "although," "while") in written assignments, achieving 85% accuracy.
The student will expand vocabulary by using synonyms, antonyms, and figurative language appropriately in oral and written language, as measured by vocabulary assessments.
The student will improve narrative skills by generating original stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end, incorporating descriptive details, achieving 90% accuracy, as measured by narrative assessments.
The student will use persuasive language and argumentative strategies in written essays, demonstrating effective communication of ideas, as measured by written compositions.

Receptive Language

The student will follow one-step and two-step directions related to daily routines, such as "pick up the crayons and put them in the box," with 85% accuracy, as measured by teacher observations.
The student will identify objects, actions, and spatial concepts in pictures and respond to "wh" questions (e.g., "Where is the cat?") with 80% accuracy, as measured by language samples.
The student will listen to short stories and answer complex comprehension questions, including inferential questions, with 90% accuracy, as measured by reading comprehension assessments.
The student will demonstrate improved auditory memory by recalling and summarizing spoken information, including main ideas and details, as measured by recall exercises.
The student will use effective listening strategies, such as paraphrasing and asking clarifying questions, during classroom discussions and lectures, as measured by teacher feedback.
The student will identify figurative language elements (e.g., similes, metaphors, idioms) in written texts and explain their meanings, achieving 85% accuracy, as measured by reading comprehension assessments.

Fluency (Stuttering)

The student will reduce instances of stuttering by using easy onsets and light contacts during speech, achieving 95% fluency in structured speaking tasks, as measured by audio recording and analysis.
The student will increase self-awareness of stuttering behaviors and use self-correction strategies, as measured by self-monitoring logs.
The student will participate in classroom activities that involve speaking in front of peers, demonstrating improved fluency and control, as measured by teacher observations.
The student will confidently engage in peer conversations, including open discussions and debates, demonstrating consistent fluency, as measured by peer evaluations and recorded conversations.
The student will use appropriate pitch and resonance in speech, achieving a balanced vocal tone, as measured by audio recording and analysis.
The student will employ vocal techniques to convey emotions and intentions effectively in spoken language, as measured by audience understanding and feedback.
The student will improve vocal hygiene practices, reducing vocal strain and hoarseness, as measured by an SLP's visual observation and self-reporting.

Social Communication and Pragmatics:

The student will initiate and maintain conversations with peers, incorporating turn-taking and active listening skills, as measured by peer evaluations and recorded conversations.
The student will use polite language and request clarification appropriately during social interactions, demonstrating effective communication, as measured by teacher observations.
The student will interpret non-verbal cues, such as body language and facial expressions, to understand social contexts and adjust behavior accordingly, as measured by comprehension of non-verbal cues in social interactions.
The student will engage in cooperative group activities, demonstrating the ability to negotiate, compromise, and resolve conflicts with peers, as measured by teacher observations.
The student will engage in role-play scenarios to practice problem-solving and conflict resolution in social situations, as measured by performance in role-play exercises.
The student will use appropriate communication strategies in academic settings, such as seeking clarification from teachers and participating in classroom discussions, as measured by teacher feedback.

In the world of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP), the importance of setting clear and purposeful goals cannot be overstated. These goals act as guiding lights, directing educators, specialists, and students toward the destination of proficient and effective communication. Crafting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) SLP IEP goals is a transformative step, promoting personalized growth.

Effective communication profoundly influences students' academic and social success. As advocates for students' speech and language needs, we encourage you to champion well-crafted IEP goals. By doing so, we empower students to navigate their educational journey confidently, armed with the indispensable ability to communicate effectively. Together, let's ensure every student's voice is not only heard but celebrated in their journey of growth and achievement.

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Back to Basics: Goal Writing for School-based SLPs

Marva mount, ma, ccc-slp.

Back to Basics
School Intervention and Collaboration in Schools

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Editor’s Note: The text is a transcript of the course, Back to Basics: Goal Writing for School-based SLPs, presented by Marva Mount, MA, CCC-SLP.

Learning Objectives

After this course, readers will be able to:

Explain what SMART goals is and why they are important.
Describe the process for writing measurable and educationally pertinent goals.
List 2-3 examples of SMART goals.

Introduction

In this course, I am going to discuss goal writing. You probably won’t hear anything that you haven’t already heard. My hope is that it will help us regroup and do what’s best for our students and their families by writing appropriate goals and objectives for them.

IDEA Requirements

First, I want to quickly review the IDEA requirements for our Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance. There are a few different acronyms for that: PLAP, PLAAP, PLAAFP. Basically, it's the part of the IEP where we review the present levels for our students. In order to get into goal-writing, I want to make sure everybody understands how we get to the goal-writing piece and what information needs to be included in the IEP.

Factors to consider when developing the present levels (PLAAFP) include the student’s academic functioning, their critical need, current measurable and observable data, data sources, any conditions that surround their measurable performance (e.g., modifications or accommodations), and enrolled grade-level content standards.

As school-based SLPs, we need to make sure that we are aligning goals with the academic standards. Many states use the Common Core State Standards and some states have written their own. Whatever the standards are for your state, make sure you understand what is contained within those standards in the areas that apply to speech and language.

Also, the IDEA requirement for PPCD (i.e., Early Childhood Education and Pre-K) focuses on how the student's disability affects their participation in appropriate activities. Because those children are around ages 3-5, they don't have academic standards. However, they do have standards for appropriate activities for their age level. In grades K-12, we want to know how the student's disability affects their involvement and progress in the general education curriculum.

34 Code of Federal Regulation §300.320 - Definition of Individual Education Program

Regarding the codes in the Federal Regulation's definition of Individual Education Program, one of the statements speaks specifically to PLAAFP as well as the child's involvement in general education. I wanted to bring that to your attention in case you want to take a look at that.

Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance

Present Levels of Academic and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) is important because it provides the student's competencies. It identifies areas of critical need. It identifies what facilitates learning for that student, as well as what inhibits learning. It determines appropriate measure of growth, and provides the information needed to design specialized instruction for the students. This specialized instruction is the goal-writing section of the IEP that we will discuss in this course.

If you don't write a good PLAAFP, then the student will not have strong measurable goals. The PLAAFP is important because it covers specific types of academic information and skills the child has mastered. It also covers other areas that are not academic, such as social communication and activities of daily living for students who may be in more of a self-contained special education classroom.

For children who have disabilities in addition to speech, we also need to look at the curriculum being used with students in those classes so that our goals align and mirror what is happening for that child academically.

In the PLAAFP statement, we are describing the what , how , and how much the student is learning in specific areas. The statement also includes adequate information about the student in order to design the specialized instruction, which are the goals we're going to discuss.

Figure 1 provides some perspective. The present levels look at where the student is currently functioning. Then we're going to look 12 months out for measurable, annual goals to make sure they're obtainable. We never want to write a goal that is continually carried over for a student from year to year. If we are doing that, then there's something wrong with our connection between what the present level of the child is and what their goals and objectives might be. Always think in terms of what the student can accomplish in 12 months. Sometimes that's easy to determine, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, with some of our lower-functioning students, we have to take an educated, professional guess in terms of how quickly they'll progress.

Figure 1. PLAAFP is basis for IEP.

The point of Figure 1 is to serve as a reminder that when looking at the critical needs of a student, we are aiming for progression. However, we don’t want to “over-aim” in terms of what we expect the student to do within a year. Sometimes we write goals that are a bit complicated and we have high expectations for a lot of progress. In those instances, when we meet with the IEP committee, we can always adjust those goals. We can make them more difficult, or we can make them less difficult, depending on how the student performed.

The present level is the only way to determine the student’s needs that will guide us in writing our educationally relevant goals. I like to have this chart in front of me when I start writing a student’s goals and objectives so I remember all of the factors that need to be considered in goal writing.

The PLAAFP must be the basis for writing educationally-relevant goals for the child's educational year because that leads us to next steps in the process of goal and objective writing. If we fail in writing the present levels, then the goals and objectives may not be appropriate for the student. The goals may be too high-level or too low-level. We may have expected a lot more than what we're actually going to see in that annual year. Present levels shows the child's academic strengths, academic challenges, what is facilitating the child's learning, what inhibits the child's learning, what their current levels of functioning are, as well as data that is specific, factual, and operational.

It is within the present levels, that we provide data from some evaluations. If the child is new on our caseload, we will be giving information and factual data on how the child performed on the educational assessment or speech and language assessment, so that we know at what level the child is currently functioning. If the child has been on our caseload for a while then present levels will contain all of the data that has been collected over the year during each therapy session. We are using that data to complete the functional levels of performance.

The PLAAFP Process

Figure 2 is a PLAAFP process sample. I remember this being tricky when I first started doing them because I wasn't sure how to word things, and I wasn't sure what components needed to be addressed.

Figure 2. PLAAFP process sample.

Examples of present level statements include:

“Student is working on developing his or her skills in the area of ______________ (this could be fluency, articulation, language, etc.) with an instructional focus in _____________________. Student is currently ______________________(evaluation data, therapy data) with condition.

Those are the three primary areas for the present levels that need to be included in order to write goals and objectives for the student.

If we think of the PLAAFP as the story of a student, then we are writing an educational story for them in this section. That can help with organizing and providing appropriate information so that when the parent or other team members read those present levels, they have a complete picture of the student and everyone is on the same page.

As an aside, some of the online special education paperwork systems don’t allow for much information in the PLAAFP section. This is unfortunate because it is the portion of the IEP that drives the entire process. If you are working with online paperwork systems that don’t allow for much information (i.e., character limits) then just do your best. Sometimes I will add an addendum. If I know the parents are very concerned, I may put some additional information in another section in order to give a complete picture of what the student’s present levels are. That’s not required, obviously, because the data can speak for itself, just be sure to be thorough in the PLAAFP section of the IEP. It can be very difficult to explain why you chose certain goals and objectives for a student if the information isn’t available to all team members.

What Happens when SLPs DO Align Their Goals with the Educational Standards?

When we align goals with the educational standards we are linking them to the general education curriculum, which is very important. We have statewide testing in my area and students have to have passing scores on that statewide testing in order to move from grade to grade and to graduate from high school. Therefore, it’s very important that I am aware of what my students need to know and what they have to do on these statewide tests in order to pass and move on to other grades.

Aligning goals with the education standards also helps because we need to know what's going on in classrooms in terms of the materials we choose and what we like to work on with students. It’s hard to figure that out if we don't look at those standards and understand them.

We also support students who are most at risk in public schools. Children in special education, in general, are at risk not only for falling behind educationally, but drop-out rates are much higher with students that have special needs as well. So, the IEP team must collaborate and support students to ensure that goals are functional academically.

We can also explicitly target academic language skills that will greatly improve academic relevance. SLPs, as you know, are not always recognized for the talents, skills, and professionalism that we bring to the academic setting. Explicitly targeting academic language skills is a great way for us to show administrators and special education teams what we know and how we can help explicitly. Not only does this promote us in our school-based programs but also in our profession in general.

Our goals will elevate the academic language skills of students with language disorders because we know how to break the goal apart. We know how to break it down and put it back together in terms of what is developmentally appropriate and what stages and steps students need to make it to the next level. We bring so much expertise to this particular part of the goal-writing process for our students and we need to take advantage of that.

We also ensure that our goals are rigorous and farsighted with respect to students' academic futures. Not all of our students will want to go to college, but some of them might. So, we want to start as early as possible to prepare those children for careers in college education, especially if they have language deficits. We need to begin doing that as early as three years old. We need to make sure they have the vocabulary, language, and grammatical components. We need to make sure that they can function in public schools and beyond that when they transition out into the world.

If we don't align goals with educational standards, we're diluting those language-related achievements that our students have and we deny them benefits that they could experience through a collective impact.

Collaboration is important, especially for children who are seen by other special educators. Team members need to be on the same page in terms of how to write student goals and objectives. We must collaborate. We need to infuse educational standards into our IEP language. Obviously, we don't all speak the same language in the educational setting. There are terms and conditions that are speech and language-related. Teachers may have those same terms and conditions that are educationally related, but call them something different. We need to speak the same language and know that semantics means vocabulary, syntax means grammar. Then, we need to be respectful of the fact that everyone on the team may not know the correlation between those words.

We also need to make the curriculum accessible to our students by matching treatment targets with their educational needs. What better way to do that than by understanding the language of our educational standards and incorporating that into what we do as speech-language pathologists.

Why Is It Important?

We've already talked about a lot of these, but students with speech and language deficits require additional teaching and practice in order to perform well in the classroom. We all know that. If they didn't require additional teaching and practice, they probably wouldn't be on our caseload.

We need to take advantage of that extra time to focus on the types of educational needs students will experience in the general education classroom.

Our goals and objectives need to be written in a way that allows students more practice and more teaching in curriculum areas that are more difficult for them. Standards-based instruction provides a framework to teach those concepts across standards, it promotes sequential learning with a longitudinal plan, and builds competence over time.

I have many students on my caseload who are language impaired. These students are easily defeated because they see me in a pull-out situation and do really well with their goals. They get it. But then they go back to class and the same concept is taught in a different way by the classroom teacher with different vocabulary and different materials. We all know how difficult it is for our students to generalize what they are learning with us into their classroom. We must ensure that our students understand that what they are working on with us is also what the teacher is working on in the classroom. That’s not easy for them to do unless we use the same vocabulary and materials that they'll come into contact with every day.

Areas of Standards

Our standards cover language, listen, speaking, and writing. Most standards, whether it is the Common Core or some other standard-based instrument that your state utilizes, always have a section of language and how that relates to listening, speaking, and writing in an educational setting. All of those areas are within our clinical expertise. We know how to address them with our students.

SMART Goals

What is a SMART goal and why are they important for our students? The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound . Specific refers to students' present levels of academic achievement and functional performance (PLAAFP), as previously discussed. Measurable means that progress is objectively determined at frequent data points. We are all aware of how important it is to make sure our goals are measurable and that we can collect good data on those goals. Achievable refers to goals being realistic and related to students' most critical needs. Remember, in that calendar year of that annual IEP, we need to make sure that we are making the goals achievable during that period of time before the next review. We want goals to be relevant , so we need results-oriented goals and objectives with a standard outcome in mind, which is why it is necessary to understand what the standards require of our students. Finally, goals need to be time-bound . There needs to be a clearly defined beginning and end date. Again, if you have an IEP on September 10th of 2019, you will have an ending period one year following that when you reconvene as an IEP committee and determine what the next steps are for the student.

Specific - Goals need to be specific because we want to know exactly what that student has to do. In order to do that, they need to be well-defined. We have to have a clear outcome, and we need to provide adequate details in terms of what the expectation is for the student.

Measurable - There needs to be some type of measurement. Is it a percentage or so many times out of total number of trials? There are many different ways to measure a goal or objective. There is no set way and is largely dependent on how the goal is written.

Achievable – An achievable goal would contain, as an example, “within 36 weeks” or “within 12 months.” Specify the timeline that the student has to achieve that goal and objective. Oftentimes, our long-term goal is for a 12-month period. Then our short-term goals and objectives, or our benchmarks, may have varying degrees of length. For example, we may start out with a short-term goal that we think they can achieve in 12 weeks, and one that they may be able to achieve in 20 weeks, etc., until we reach that 12-month period when the long-term goal ends.

Relevant – The goal must be educationally relevant in the school setting. Time-bound – Goals are time-bound based on the terms of the IEP.

Why Smart Goals?

SMART goals state desired future achievement for the student. We are always looking ahead. What does this student need in order to be successful in the second grade, the third grade, or the 12th grade? SMART goals assist in focusing on what a student's primary needs are through the present levels. They help to define exactly what the student’s future achievement looks like and how we're going to measure it. If we follow the SMART process, then we should be writing some really great goals and objectives for our students.

Components of Measurable Goals

There are also components within these SMART goals. Components are aspects of that goal and objective that help us cover all of our bases. The first one is condition , sometime also referred to as quality . Condition specifies under what conditions the behavior will occur. For example, in what setting or using what materials and/or with what supports. Materials does not mean naming the specific materials (e.g., “using Super Duper cards” or “using LinguiSystems cards”) we plan to use. Rather, it’s a type of roadmap for how we plan to get the student to achieve the goal. Remember, it’s not a great idea to name the specific materials because if the student moves to another location and that therapist does not have the same materials, that becomes a problem for that goal.

The next component is behavior , or the learning performance, of the student. It identifies the observable and measurable performance expected. It answers the question, “What will you see the child perform or do?” We want to specifically state what we want that student to do in order to master that goal and objective.

The third component is criteria which identifies how much of the behavior the child is expected to perform for the goal to be met. It answers the question, “To what level does the student need to perform this behavior?”

Finally, timeframe is the amount of time it will take to attain the goal. This always answers the question, “How long do I think it will take this student to perform the behavior to this specific level?”

Below is a chart that might be helpful for looking at condition/quality, learner performance, criteria, and timeframe (Figure 3). Sometimes a visual can really help jumpstart our thinking when we sit down to write goals and objectives.

Condition/quality. The first column is Condition/Quality and it is broken down into different factors like “Location” or “Givens”. A location example would be, “"During lunch group, a student will…," or, "In a large group, a student will…," or, "In a one-on-one setting or situation, this student will…" This is a list of suggestions for ways to meet the condition/quality component of the goal.

“Givens” are “Given X number of trials…” or “When given pictures…” or “When given unfamiliar material, the student will…” There are numerous examples to add in terms of condition or quality.

There are some miscellaneous terms and phrases also listed. For students who are working on social skills, it can be challenging to come up with how we want them to react in social situations and with whom. We might talk about “with typical peers” or “with adults”. We might want the goal to include, “…with certain grade-level vocabulary”, etc.

Quality is how the goal will be met such as “independently”, “with prompting”, “in correct order”, “with a main idea and X number of details”, “with no more than one direction.” These are examples of how to meet that condition or quality component.

Behavior/learned performance. The chart lists some great suggestions for writing a goal that is measurable because we are indicating exactly what we want them to do. We don't use words like learn or will know because that can’t be measured. We can't really measure learn . So, this column lists words that will make that goal and objective measurable in terms of behavior: alphabetize, answer, self-correct, summarize, give, identify, include . Those are all words that are definitely measurable and we can take data on without any problem. This is, obviously, a very small percentage of some of those behavior terms that are measurable.

Criteria. This refers to frequency, duration, accuracy, latency/speed, or maybe intensity depending on the type of a goal being written. It may be X number of times per day, X number of times in X number of minutes. It could be over consecutive sessions. With stuttering, we may look at duration and accuracy. Figuring out how to word a goal can be challenging. Having a list of examples like this can help.

Timeframe. I receive many questions about how the timeframe should be written on the scheduled of services section of the IEP. My advice is to write it the way the district wants you to. Each district has its own view on how the timeframe should be written. Some school districts want it by grading period. Some want it by grading quarterly, every so many weeks, or every so many sessions. There is no definitive answer for the best way to write that so it is best to follow the districts instructions. Additionally, some IEP electronic paperwork is already set up a certain way and doesn’t allow the delivery model or service model to be changed.

When writing the timeframe, remember that there are many interruptions to our therapy sessions – field trips, testing, benchmark testing, statewide testing, etc. Therefore, it is better to write the goal for over a period of time rather than “so many times per week”. It allows for more flexibility to meet those established minutes per grading period as listed on the schedule of services. Writing the timeframe as “weekly” restricts the ability to make up those minutes if the child is involved in another activity or event.

Model for Goal Writing

Along with the components just discussed, there are other parts to the goal that must be included. SMART goals will always include:

WHO - The student
WHAT - What will the student need to do? Is it measurable and observable?
WHEN (timeframe) - How long does the student need to work on the goal?
WHERE (conditions) - Setting, situation and materials
HOW (criterion) - To what level or degree must the student perform.
ASSESSMENT - What level of assessment will be used to measure progress and attainment of that particular goal?

This model tends to work better with the special education paperwork compared to the SMART or Components model. However, all three are very similar and one of them should work for you and your district requirements.

Goal Components

Goal components can be ordered this way:

By when will the person do it?
Who will do it?
What will they do?
How well will they do it?
Under what conditions?

For example, “By the end of X, John will be able to produce the “s” sound in phrases with 80% accuracy without models provided.” That goal covers all of the goal components for what needs to happen in order for it to move the student forward.

There is also a seven-step process for creating standards-based IEPs created by Project Forum at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education Conference (NASDSE, 2007). The process was presented to classroom teachers and special education classroom teachers, but I found it very useful for writing speech and language goals. I have modified the steps slightly but I do follow the basic model and want to give the NASDSE credit.

Step 1: First Write/Review the PLAAFP

The first step is to review the assessment date and determine the present levels (PLAAFP). For example:

Sally is a 4-year-old student with autism. She displays occasional verbal and physical outbursts to demonstrate frustration over shared materials or when she cannot move about the classroom as she chooses. She follows a visual schedule for her daily routine and can independently manipulate the schedule pieces as she progresses through the day. She has learned to look at the next picture on her schedule and will verbally state what comes next, i.e. “computer”, “PE”, “lunch”.

Sally uses one- and two-word phrases to express wants and needs, primarily with adults. According to her mother, she “plays” with her older sister, but social interaction with peers is limited to parallel play in various areas of the classroom. When observed in various school environments, Sally did not independently initiate interactions with peers. When observed over the course of multiple days, Sally initiated peer interactions a total of 2 times on the playground when an adult provided a verbal instruction and verbal, gestural or visual prompts (picture) to initiate the interaction.

The statement tells WHO (Sally) and WHAT she displays (verbal and physical outburst). The statement indicates that she uses one- and two-word phrases, and specifically HOW. It includes additional information in order to give a complete picture of a functional analysis for Sally.

Again, that is a sample of what a PLAAFP statement might look like for a student.

Step 2: Prioritize Needs

Step two is prioritizing the student’s deficit areas. With the example of Sally, she has multiple deficit areas and for a four-year-old, some of those deficits are pretty significant. Her speech and language skills are very poor.

We want to take the information known about Sally and prioritize it so that she doesn’t have an IEP with 85 goals and objectives. Sally will never function and make progress if too many goals are written. We want to prioritize her needs by identifying those that are most likely to hinder her access or progress in her special education preschool classroom.

Sally’s areas of concern are the verbal and physical outbursts, which is not surprising because she can’t communicate and that behavior is a form of communication. Teachers may not understand that so we can discuss that with them. Additionally, Sally has very limited social interaction. She has only been seen in parallel play with students in her class. She does not initiate interactions with peers independently, and she has limited verbalizations.

From a speech and language perspective, her inability to interact independently and her limited verbalizations are priority needs for Sally if she is going to access all areas of her current educational setting.

Another question to consider is what is most likely to hinder the student’s success? For Sally, it is her limited verbalizations and interactions with peers. Those two areas should be included in her IEP.

Step 3: Review Academic Standards

In the case of Sally, there may not be academic standards. Rather, there might communication standards and/or socialization standards. We want to review those since we know they are deficit areas for Sally. For prekindergarten, the guideline is, “The child shows competence in initiating social interactions.” We can take this standard and decide where we need to start developmentally with Sally to get her to the point where she can show competence in initiating social interactions.

Step 4: Correlate Deficit Areas

Step four is to correlate the deficit to a standard. We want to match that priority deficit skill to a corresponding educational or functional performance area. The selected areas should be those that determine the greatest potential to accelerate the student's achievement. The aim is to close the gap.

For example, Sally’s skills include using a picture schedule independently and anticipating what comes next in her schedule. She can use one- and two-word phrases to express wants and needs consistently with adults. She may not be doing that with her peers, but she's able to do it with adults, probably when prompted. Additionally, she exhibits social initiation in controlled environments with multiple prompts using a two-word phrase. Meaning, if someone assists her to make that social initiation, she can do it. But it requires a lot of prompting. Finally, Sally demonstrates parallel play alongside her peers. It’s not that she doesn’t want to be around the peers, she just can’t turn her parallel play into interaction yet.

The skills that Sally needs include showing competence in initiating social interaction, actively seeking out play partners, and appropriately inviting them to play. These are areas of need for Sally based on the standards for functional performance for her age level.

Step 5: Develop Annual Goal

The next step is to develop the annual goals and objectives. After the deficit skill areas have been identified with corresponding educational needs for the student, annual goals are developed.

Using the SMART acronym, what goals can be written for Sally?

By Sally's next annual IEP (4), given a verbal instruction and no more than one verbal prompt (1), Sally will approach a peer during a structured playtime and invite him or her to play by making a verbal request, such as, 'Play with me?’ (2) as evidenced by making the request for five consecutive school days during one grading period (3).

Because Sally can use one- and two-word phrases already, we want to bump her up to three words. Sally is going to have to initiate those social interactions five consecutive school days during one grading period. That's how we're going to measure her progress.

Step 6: Developing Short-Term Objectives

Step six is to develop short-term goals and objectives. Short-term objectives (STOs), also called benchmarks, are no longer required by federal law. When IDEA 2004 was rewritten and reauthorized, it removed the need for short-term objectives to be listed on a child's IEP unless that student was taking some type of alternative assessment aligned with alternative achievement standards. Those are the students who need modifications to be made to the grade-level content. In that instance, it is still required by federal law to write short-term goals and objectives. For more information on that IDEA federal requirement, go to 34 CFR Section 300.320.

For students who have SLI with no other disability categories, their grade-level content is not typically modified. Only accommodations are provided to help them reach their goals. Likewise, students with only speech impairment will not have modified content and we are no longer required to write short-term goals or objectives unless the district or state requires it. It IS ok for districts and states to continue to require them.

In many instances, short-term objectives are the building blocks for the student to reach the annual goal. Each STO or benchmark can be individually measured with data collection. Having STOs can make it a bit easier.

Example of possible STOs for Sally include:

By the end of Sally’s fourth reporting period, given a verbal instruction paired with a verbal, gestural and visual prompt, Sally will interact with a peer in a short-structured activity by sharing materials for up to five minutes over five consecutive interactions, as evidenced by data collection by the classroom teacher and the speech pathologist.

If the objective is only going to be measured by you, as the SLP, then state that. In my school, goals are written for younger children such that communication goals are worked on by the SLP and the classroom teacher. All of the components of the goal are there: who, why, when, how much, and how it will be evaluated. This is a very important step if Sally is going to master the standards that are required for her pre-K classroom.

Another example:

By the end of Sally’s second reporting period, given a verbal instruction paired with a verbal, gestural and visual prompt, Sally will demonstrate appropriate turn taking skills during an adult-directed play task with a peer over 5 consecutive interactions, as evidenced by grading turn taking using a social skills interaction rubric.

The first STO states, “By the end of Sally’s fourth reporting period” because that goal is going to take more time for her to reach. Her second STO states, “By the end of Sally’s second reporting period…” because it is not expected to take her as long to master that STO compared to the first one.

Essential Elements Cheat Sheet

Figure 4 is a cheat sheet that can help break goals apart in a systematic and organized way.

Figure 4. Essential elements cheat sheet. The essential element is listed in the center of the table with a “Yes” and “No” column to the left of it. If “Yes” is checked then that suggests the goal is based on identified student need. If you read the essential element to yourself and think “No, it’s not really based on need," then check the “No” column and adjust the goal to address what their need is now based on what they can do. Do the same check for levels of performance, meaningful goal, measurable goal, annual progress, and classroom participation. Again, this is a chart to help with goal writing if needed. Figure 4. Essential elements chart.

Goal writing is an area that many SLPs struggle with. As we inherit folders and IEPs with goals written by other SLPs, we want to show some grace to the professionals who came before us before jumping to the conclusion of, “What were they thinking. How is that goal measurable?” Let’s take the opportunity to write goals in the right way and not worry about how the goal was given to us.

Collaboration

The last item to discuss is collaboration. We hear a lot about interprofessional collaboration and ASHA has quite a bit on the topic as well. It's very important to collaborate with our colleagues and demonstrate how effective we can be with students that are having educational challenges. It starts with us - how we present ourselves and how we collaborate with our colleagues. I encourage you to get into classrooms. Be a well-known person in your building and be a source of knowledge and information to others.

When we collaborate, we're increasing the value of what we do so that others can do it too. We're also increasing the value to our students in terms of knowledge and skills that we can help them acquire. If you are a middle and/or high school SLP, it’s extremely important to motivate your students and help them understand why they to come to speech therapy. Instead of the rolling of the eyes or “getting lost” on the way and never show up, it’s important that you share what you know with them and what you can help them do.

Below are some references that I refer to on a regular basis. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 can be accessed at sites.ed.gov. If you're new to the profession, look through the references and understand what the requirements are for you as a special education provider. Speech is a special education service in the public schools. Be aware of what you need to know as a speech-language pathologist working with students in the public schools.

Blosser, J., Roth, F. P., Paul, D. R., Ehren, B. J., Nelson, N. W. & Sturm, J. M. (2012). Integrating the core. The ASHA Leader .

Capitol Region Education Council. The BluePrint: Building Powerful Special Education Practices (2013). Hartford, CT.

Ehren, B. J., Blosser, J., Roth, F. P., Paul, D. R. & Nelson, N. W. (2012). Core commitment. The ASHA Leader .

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 2004. Rules and regulations retrieved from www.sites.ed.gov .

Justice, L. (2013). From my perspective: A+ speech-language goals. The ASHA Leader .

Mount, M. (2014). Facilitating cohesive service delivery through collaboration. Perspectives on School-Based Issues . 15, 15-25.

National Association of State Directors of Special Education (2007). Available at www.nasdse.org .

Power-de Fur, L. & Flynn, P. (2012). Unpacking the standards for intervention. Perspectives on School-based Issues , 13, 11-16.

Mount, M. (2020). Back to Basics: Goal Writing for School-based SLPs. SpeechPathology.com, Article 20343. Retrieved from www.speechpathology.com

Marva Mount, MA , CCC-SLP

Marva Mount, M. A., CCC-SLP has worked in a variety of settings in her 35+ year career, with school-based services being her most enjoyed work setting due to serving children who have the greatest need for services and the highest likelihood of educational success with intervention. Marva has presented at the state and national level on a variety of school-based issues. Marva is a chapter author/contributor to the Fifth Edition of Professional Issues in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology as well as a contributing author to ASHA Special Interest Group 11 and 16 (Supervision and School-based Issues) Perspectives. At the 2018 Texas Speech and Hearing Convention, Marva was awarded the TSHA Hall of Fame Award for outstanding contributions to the profession. Marva is currently serving as the topic chair for Professional Issues and Leadership for the 2020 ASHA convention in San Diego.

Related Courses

Course: #8977 level: introductory 1 hour, back to basics: let's talk data collection, course: #9246 level: introductory 1 hour, telepractice tips and tricks for school intervention, course: #9566 level: introductory 1 hour, collaborative therapy isn't pushy, course: #9105 level: intermediate 1 hour, collaborate with confidence in school-based teams, course: #10178 level: intermediate 1 hour.

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Life Skills Middle and High School IEP Goal Bank

Working at the middle and high school level can be so very rewarding! Seeing my students become young adults and go into the world is an amazing feeling. Making sure to provide functional speech therapy services can be a bit overwhelming as students at this age can have a variety of needs. You may work with some students who spend most of their day in the school environment and you may work with some students who divide their time between school and a vocational setting. Knowing how to goal set for our students can feel tough! (Make sure to scroll to the bottom to get your life skills goal bank).

I am here to help! I have been working with kids at this age level for almost 10 years. I feel so very lucky to divide my time with older students in a school setting and toddler/preschool students in my private practice- ABA SPEECH. At the middle and high school level, we need to make sure that we are helping to support our students in the larger school and at times community environment. This service delivery at times may feel a bit outside of the box. There was the time that I would visit a student at their work site to observe how they were applying the receptive language skills that they had worked so hard on in therapy. Or the time that I would plan a weekly vocational group for my students about settings they would experience in a vocational rotation the following year. I love this age group for how very functional it is! Planning therapy for students across environments will help them generalize these skills into their daily lives!

Each student will have their own unique set of strengths and areas of need. Starting with a robust assessment is a good start! I always try my very best to include an observation is appropriate for the student. Observing my student communicating in the classroom or larger school environment can provide me with so much information when I am goal setting! At the middle school and high school environment I try to focus on vocational skills, social skills that are tied to the vocational setting and life-long leisure skills and receptive language skills that are tied to the larger school environment.

When I am goal setting for my students at this age level, I always make sure that I touch base with parents to see what concerns they may have! Parents are such an important piece to the IEP team puzzle. Ongoing communication with parents and other team members prior to the IEP, will make for a more cohesive plan for our students.

Below find my life skills goal bank. It is divided into sections regarding skills that you may target in therapy with your students. I hope that this is a wonderful resource for you when goal setting for your older learners.

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Professional & Student Learning Goals for SLPs

It is true that every work setting has its pros and cons. It is also true that working in the school setting is not for everyone (according to my advisor in graduate school, schools are where the less ambitious SLPs end up *exasperated sigh*). I personally LOVE working in the schools! What I do not love is being a part of the teacher evaluation process.

I believe it is important to continually be challenged and encouraged to grow in our field. I just wish the evaluation process for SLPs in the school was more specific to our particular area of expertise. Regardless, every October I find myself drafting the perfect professional goals.

When I started in the schools, my CF supervisor told me to set a professional goal that was realistic. Now I know, you are probably thinking that IS what the “R” in SMART stands for, but let me explain further. Realistic meaning, something you are already doing, but just need a little motivation to finalize or fine tune. Professional goal setting season is not the time to plan a lofty over-haul in your speech room. Please, be realistic with yourself!

I know when I started out, I turned to some of my favorite SLP bloggers for ideas. So, I wanted to log my goals here, for future reference and to help others:

Student Learning Goal

By the end of the 2017-2018 school year, my K-3 students will demonstrate at least moderate growth in using attributes to describe familiar nouns in a structured therapy setting.

By the end of September, 2017, I will administer a pre-test to all K-3 students on my caseload with objectives on their IEP pertaining to describing to determine their individual baselines in providing attributes when describing a given noun.
Throughout the 2017-2018 school year, I will implement a multi-sensory, systematic method of describing items by attributes. During once or twice weekly language therapy sessions, students will receive direct instruction, guided practice, and independent opportunities to utilize targeted strategies in order to improve their describing skills.
By November 17, 2017, I will document student progress towards meeting their describing learning objectives on their progress reports.
By March 16, 2018, I will document student progress towards meeting their describing learning objectives on their progress reports.
By June 1, 2018, I will administer a post-test to the same set of students to determine their growth in providing attributes when describing a given noun.

Professional Practice Goal

By the end of the 2017-2018 school year, I will build up Tier I speech/language interventions in the kindergarten general education classrooms as part of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model to provide universal support to all students in foundational speech and language skills and improve early identification of students in need of more targeted interventions.

In Fall, 2017, I will send out a survey to all of the kindergarten classroom teachers to identify the areas of speech/language development (e.g., following 2 step directions, wh-questions, story re-tell, turn-taking/topic maintenance, phonological awareness, basic concepts, vocabulary, early grammar) in which most of their students will benefit, and which day/time would work best for their schedule.
By November 30, 2017, I will collaborate with two kindergarten classroom teachers to plan and implement one universal language lesson in each classroom.
By December 7, 2017, I will meet with the kindergarten classroom teachers to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the universal language lesson and identify changes that can be made to increase its educational efficacy moving forward.
By March 2, 2018, I will collaborate with the kindergarten classroom teachers to plan and implement at least one universal language lesson per classroom during the second term of the school year.
By March 9, 2018, I will meet with the kindergarten classroom teachers to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the universal language lessons, discuss the impact of the lessons on the students’ speech and language skills, and offer carry-over strategies for the classroom.
By May 25, 2018, I will collaborate with the kindergarten classroom teachers to plan and implement at least two universal language lessons per classroom during the third term of the school year.
By June 1, 2018, I will meet with all of the kindergarten classroom teachers to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the universal language lessons, discuss the impact of the lessons on the students’ speech and language skills, and select topics for the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year.

Student Learning Goal

By the end of the 2018-2019 school year, my students will demonstrate at least moderate growth in knowledge and understanding of speech/language goals by stating their individualized targets at the end of each session with 80% accuracy in four out of five sessions.

At the start of the school year, I will create goal visuals in student-friendly language specific to each student to be displayed in front of the student during sessions as a visual reminder of their speech-language targets. During each therapy session, I will review which goals we will be working on, and then at the end of the session each student will tell what was targeted.
After initial familiarization with speech/language targets, I will have each student fill out an individual profile that lists his/her general goal areas and why these areas are important. These will be displayed in the therapy room and reviewed periodically throughout the year as needed.
I will have my students working on articulation, phonology, and/or fluency fill out a self-rating scale at the beginning and end of the school year to help them think about why working on speech is important and monitor the emotional impact of these disorder types.
I will use progress monitoring checks at least once per trimester to assess student progress with their individual goals. I will review progress individually with each student, and he/she will review their goals and then update their personal goal graph sheet with their progress each trimester.

Professional Practice Goal

During the current school year, I will increase my collaboration with other school professionals and explore new therapy approaches to help provide the least restrictive environment for my students.

At the start of the school year, I will provide packets of information to each teacher, regarding each of their specific students on my caseload, their disorders and goals, and possible academic impact.
I will collaborate with at least one general or special education teacher to plan and execute at least one co-taught inclusion lesson or center time in each trimester of the school year.
I will collaborate with my IEP students’ classroom teachers to conduct at least one supplementary whole-class or small-group speech/language support lesson in each trimester. We will meet to determine which classrooms would benefit the most, which available times work best with my existing therapy schedule, and which topics would most benefit the students.
I will collaborate with the kindergarten teachers to conduct at least two supplementary whole-class speech/language support lessons per kindergarten classroom each trimester. We will meet before and after each lesson to discuss areas of concerns and students in need of more support.
I will trial the “5 Minute Articulation” approach with at least 5 different students this year in order to determine if shorter, more frequent sessions are more effective than being pulled out from the classroom for traditional, longer therapy sessions.

Student Learning Goal

By the end of the 2019-2020 school year, my K-3 students will demonstrate moderate growth in the area of following directions by participating in individualized intervention in which evidence-based strategies and targets for following directions are addressed (e.g., defining instructional verbs, expanding concept knowledge, improving sequencing, and developing auditory processing strategies).

I will research evidence-based intervention targets and strategies in the skill area of following directions.
I will generate a list of common instructional verbs and concepts used in K-3 classrooms to serve as functional targets during language intervention sessions.
At the beginning of the school year, I will assess each student’s baseline performance using a pre-test consisting of structured following directions tasks (e.g.,defining instructional verbs; identifying spatial, quantitative, and temporal concepts; sequencing procedural events; and application of auditory processing strategies).
By second term, I will provide the classroom teacher of each student with visuals and resources regarding the vocabulary, concepts, and strategies being taught in the language intervention sessions to support generalization.
Each trimester, I will assess student progress toward acquisition of all four foundations of following directions (i.e., instructional vocabulary, concept knowledge, sequencing ability, and knowledge of auditory processing strategies).
In May 2020, I will administer a post-test consisting of structured following directions tasks (e.g.,defining instructional verbs; identifying spatial, quantitative, and temporal concepts; sequencing procedural events; and application of auditory processing strategies) to assess student progress.

During the current school year, the speech/language department will improve communication with parents and guardians in order to encourage generalization of speech/language targets to the home and in the community.

By October 2019, we will create individual educator pages on the Schools website featuring our contact information and a description of my role.
Throughout the school year, we will send home monthly newsletters, which will include current focuses in the therapy room, thematic ideas for supporting positive communication skills at home, and a link to our individual educator page.
By mid-year, we will add parent-friendly resources and references to our educator pages providing information about speech/language disorders, accommodations, and classroom impact.
By mid-year, we will add home practice ideas for each area of speech-language pathology (i.e., articulation, receptive language, expressive language, fluency) to our educator pages.

By the end of the 2020-2021 school year, my students with phonological IEP objectives will demonstrate moderate growth in the remediation of targeted phonological processes.

By September 2020, I will identify students on my caseload who are candidates for a phonological approach to speech sound intervention.
By October 2020, I will research two phonological approaches for speech sound intervention (e.g., complexity approach, cycles approach, multiple oppositions, minimal pairs, maximal oppositions, treatment of the empty set, etc.)
By November 2020, I will assign the most appropriate phonological approach to each identified student and collect baseline data using a standard articulation probe.
Every six weeks, I will assess student progress using their assigned phonological approach by readministering the standard articulation probe.
By February 2021, I will provide each identified student a home practice program to support generalization.
By June 2021, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the two new phonological approaches to speech sound intervention used during this school year by readministering the standard articulation probe and comparing the identified students’ performance to their performance on the baseline probe.

During the current school year, the speech/language department will expand knowledge and use of various technology resources and platforms for speech/language therapy in order to adapt and improve quality of intervention.

By September 2020, each SLP will complete ten hours of professional development in the area of telepractice.
By November 2020, the speech/language department will research five new technology resources and select at least three to implement in speech/language therapy sessions.
By March 2021, each SLP will use at least three new technology resources a minumum of three times each in direct or asynchronous speech/language therapy sessions.
By June 2021, the speech/language department will evaluate the effectiveness of each technology resource using a five-point scale for student engagement, ease of use, and range of use.

Thanks for reading!

Understanding Pragmatic Language in Middle School: A Comprehensive Overview

Welcome to my blog! In this post, we will explore the importance of social emotional learning in middle school and delve into the world of pragmatic language. Pragmatic language plays a crucial role in communication and social interactions, making it essential for students to develop strong skills in this area. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or student, this comprehensive overview will provide you with valuable insights and strategies to support pragmatic language development in middle school.

What is Pragmatic Language?

Pragmatic language refers to the social rules and conventions that govern how we use language in different contexts. It involves understanding and using language appropriately in various social situations, such as conversations, group discussions, and presentations. Pragmatic language encompasses a range of skills, including turn-taking, understanding nonverbal cues, initiating and maintaining conversations, resolving conflicts, and active listening.

Pragmatic Language Challenges in Middle School

Middle school students often face challenges in developing pragmatic language skills. They may struggle with understanding social cues, interpreting sarcasm or humor, and adapting their communication style to different situations. These difficulties can have a significant impact on their social interactions, leading to feelings of isolation, misunderstandings, and conflicts with peers. Additionally, poor pragmatic language skills can also affect academic performance, as effective communication is essential for collaborative learning and classroom participation.

Pragmatic Language Goals for Middle School Students

Setting pragmatic language goals is crucial for supporting middle school students in their social and emotional development. By identifying specific areas for improvement, students can work towards enhancing their pragmatic language skills and building meaningful connections with others. Here are some examples of pragmatic language goals for middle school students:

Initiating and maintaining conversations: Students will learn to start conversations, ask open-ended questions, and actively engage in dialogue with their peers.
Understanding nonverbal cues: Students will develop the ability to interpret facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice to better understand others’ emotions and intentions.
Resolving conflicts effectively: Students will learn strategies for resolving conflicts peacefully, such as using “I” statements, active listening, and finding mutually agreeable solutions.
Asking for help or clarification: Students will practice asking for help or clarification when they do not understand something, fostering a growth mindset and promoting effective communication.
Active listening and turn-taking: Students will develop active listening skills, including maintaining eye contact, nodding to show understanding, and taking turns during conversations.

Strategies for Supporting Pragmatic Language Development

Collaboration between teachers, parents, and speech language pathologists is essential for supporting pragmatic language development in middle school. Here are some strategies that can be implemented:

Collaborating with teachers and parents: Regular communication between teachers and parents can help create a consistent approach to supporting pragmatic language skills both at school and at home.
Creating a supportive and inclusive classroom environment: Teachers can foster a positive and inclusive classroom culture by promoting empathy, respect, and understanding among students.
Incorporating social skills training into the curriculum: Teachers can integrate social skills training into their lessons, providing opportunities for students to practice and apply pragmatic language skills in real-life situations.
Providing explicit instruction and modeling: Teachers can explicitly teach pragmatic language skills by providing clear instructions, modeling appropriate behavior, and offering opportunities for guided practice.
Utilizing visual supports and social stories: Visual supports, such as visual schedules, cue cards, and social stories, can help students understand and remember social expectations in different contexts.

Resources and Tools for Pragmatic Language Development

There are numerous resources and tools available to support pragmatic language development in middle school students. Here are some recommendations:

Recommended books and literature: Books such as “Social Thinking at Work” by Michelle Garcia Winner and “You Are a Social Detective!” by Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke provide valuable insights and practical strategies for developing pragmatic language skills.
Online resources and websites: Websites like EverydaySpeech.com offer a wide range of social skills resources, including videos, worksheets, and interactive activities.
Apps and technology-based tools: Apps like “ConversationBuilder” and “Social Skills Builder” provide interactive platforms for practicing pragmatic language skills in a fun and engaging way.
Professional organizations and support groups: Organizations like the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and local support groups can provide valuable resources, workshops, and networking opportunities for professionals and families.

In conclusion, pragmatic language plays a vital role in middle school students’ social and emotional development. By understanding the concept of pragmatic language, identifying challenges, setting goals, implementing strategies, and accessing resources, we can support students in developing strong pragmatic language skills. Remember, addressing pragmatic language needs is essential for fostering positive social interactions, enhancing academic performance, and promoting overall well-being. Start your EverydaySpeech free trial today and embark on a journey towards supporting pragmatic language development in middle school!

Preparing for Success: Enhancing Social Communication in Grade 12

Preparing for Success: Enhancing Social Communication in Grade 12 Key Takeaways Strong social communication skills are crucial for academic success and building meaningful relationships in Grade 12. Social communication includes verbal and non-verbal communication,...

Preparing for Success: Enhancing Social Communication in Grade 12 Preparing for Success: Enhancing Social Communication in Grade 12 As students enter Grade 12, they are on the cusp of adulthood and preparing for the next chapter of their lives. While academic success...

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Different By Design Learning

with Shawna Wingert

Social Pragmatic Goals In Speech Therapy: Everything You Need To Know

This overview introduces social pragmatic goals in speech therapy as well as examples of how these goals contribute to your child’s increasing social ability.

When my child was first diagnosed with social pragmatic language disorder, I was not surprised. Part of my college education included a minor in communication disorders, so I was familiar with how a speech-language pathologist would approach his treatment. What did surprise were the actual pragmatic language goals that were put into place as part of his IEP.

Learning Social Language Skills

Table Of Contents

When is child is struggling with pragmatic language, struggle in various language related functions, including:

conversational turns
comprehending facial expressions
body language
personal space
understanding figurative language (i.e. metaphor, hyperbole, etc.)
appropriate eye contact
visual cues
verbal prompts

Fluency in conversation exchanges amongst young children is very different than the pragmatic skills necessary for social conversation as a child gets older (and don’t get me started on middle schoolers!). The school setting tends to expose a need for social pragmatics and often leads to speech therapy for social communication skills.

Examples Of Social Skills Goals For Functional Communication

The following is a sample list of goals a speech therapist might establish for social pragmatic learning. Please note, these goals go far beyond the articulation goals that are most frequently a part of speech therapy. You will typically find them as part of an IEP goal bank in speech-language pathology.

Learner will label emotions/feelings in partners or in pictures with 80% accuracy for 3 sessions.
Learner will use words to express their feelings independently for 80% of opportunities across 3 sessions.
Learner will state an answer to what another person might be feeling based about a social situation with 80% accuracy for 3 sessions,
Learner will answer pragmatic questions about social situations during structured activities with 80% accuracy for 3sessions.
Learner will identify a problem in a social setting/picture scene with 80% accuracy for 3 sessions.
Learner will make inferences after hearing part of a story/social situation with 80% accuracy for 3 sessions.
Learner will use greetings and farewells for 5 consecutive sessions..
Learner will request help independently in 80% of opportunities across 5 sessions
Learner will maintain conversation for 3 turns by asking a questions or commenting with no more than 1 verbal prompt for 3 sessions.
Learner will add an appropriate comment to a topic generated by therapist or partner without prompting at least 10 times across 3 sessions.
Learner will participate in turn-taking with the therapist for 5 turns per opportunity with a minimum of 5 opportunities across 3 sessions.
Learner will identify signs of listener boredom or disinterest independently with 80% accuracy for 3 sessions.

These goals are certainly not exhaustive, but do help to measure a child’s progress towards social interaction skills in everyday life.

Autism Spectrum Disorder vs. Social Pragmatic Language Disorder

While there is some overlap, social pragmatic language disorder exists as a diagnosis completely separate from autism spectrum disorder in the DSM-V. Prior to the DSM-V’s release however, the two were considered the same diagnosis – autism spectrum disorder.

According to Attitude Magazine people with social pragmatic language disorder may also struggle with:

Responding to others
Using gestures such as waving and pointing
Taking turns when talking
Talking about emotions and feelings
Staying on topic
Adjusting speech to fit different people and different circumstances
Asking relevant questions
Responding with related ideas
Using words for different purposes, such as greeting people, asking questions, responding to questions, making comments
Making and keeping friends

Here is a strong comparison of the similarities and differences between the two:

Many of the same symptoms also often overlap with those of other dianoses and learning differences, which can complicate diagnosis (according to a study completed in 2013 .) Part of the diagnostic criteria is designed to rule out other potential factors first.

How Structured Language Activities Support A Child’s Social Relationships

Independent of any diagnosis, the reality is that a child struggling with pragmatic language can benefit greatly from accommodation and intervention.

Social Pragmatic Goals In Speech Therapy

Every one of the goals above corresponds to a need identified as part of the speech evaluations. Conversation skills, problem solving, nonverbal communication, and social cognition are all factored into these goals and how they impact a child’s ability in conversational exchanges.

More Resources For Social Pragmatic Communication

Speech Therapy Goals: A Step By Step Guide

Speech Therapy For An Older Child

Speech Therapy At Home

Fig urative Language Activities

Allusion Sentence Examples And Activities

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Shawna Wingert is a former training and development professional turned education specialist, and has homeschooled her two children for the last ten years.Shawna has written four books about homeschooling unique learners and has been featured in homeschooling discussions on Today.com, The Mighty, Simple Homeschool, My Little Poppies and Raising Lifelong Leaners.

You can find her online here at DifferentByDesignLearning.com.

20 Vocabulary Goals For Speech Therapy: Practical Examples For Learning

When creating vocabulary goals for speech therapy, it can be tempting to create a checklist and begin practice drills. The very best approach however, exposes learners to vocabulary practice in everyday life, and gives them strategies for communicating in real life scenarios. Evidence Based Strategies To Strengthen Vocabulary Skills Research shows that a child’s vocabulary…

IMAGES

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Use this list of speaking goals to help your students with the goal
Sample Speech Therapy Goals
Student Speech Goal
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50 Educational Goals Examples (2024)

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Speech on 'Importance of goals in our life' to speak in school morning assembly

COMMENTS

Middle School Language Goals
I don't know about you but when I first started working in middle school, I was tough to transition from elementary to secondary level speech & language goals. Students in middle and high school are spending less time reading narrative or stories and more reading expository non-fiction texts. They are "reading to learn" and need […]
Middle School Speech Language Therapy Goal Bank
Since 2012, Speechy Musings has focused on one mission: creating the best resources and materials that make being a busy SLP a little easier. They're engaging, research-supported, both printable and digital, use graphics and fonts appropriate for a wide variety of ages, and target skills directly, with no fluff.
PDF Measurable Language Goals Updated 4/07
Measurable Language Goals (By Ana Paula G. Mumy, M.S., CCC-SLP) Narrative Skills (Sample 1 with benchmark objectives) In one instructional year (or in instructional weeks), student will be able to utilize story grammar - understanding all four story elements (character, setting, problem,
Goal Bank
Receptive Language [Name] will use a listening comprehension strategy - i.e. visualization, paraphrasing, questioning, association, etc. - to accurately respond to 80% of WH questions about an auditory passage across three consecutive probing sessions.. Given instructions to a classroom task or assignment, [name] will accurately sequence three-step directions containing temporal terms (i.e ...
An SLP's Guide to Writing Expressive Language Goals for School Age IEPs
This article contains everything you need to know to write expressive language goals for speech students, and an expressive language goal bank! Expressive language is how our speech students can share their thoughts, feelings, needs, and ideas in and out of the classroom. What is Expressive Language? According to ASHA, expressive language is our ability to communicate our thoughts and feelings ...
Middle School Speech Therapy Goals
Middle School Speech Therapy Goals—Principle Two: Prioritize Self-advocacy. Academically, one of the biggest challenges students encounter when transitioning to middle school is having multiple teachers and classrooms. As students navigate this change, their self-advocacy skills become increasingly important, and we can support them by ...
100+ Expressive Language Goals Speech Therapy with Free Goal Bank
Expressive language goals are an important part of speech therapy. Through expressive language goals, we help guide our students in improving their communication abilities. These goals are designed to build the capacity to convey thoughts, feelings, and information effectively. Our work in this area is deeply rooted in understanding the ...
Speech Therapy Goal Bank for Middle School [grades 6-8]
Are you finding it difficult to write speech therapy goals for your older students? This freebie includes over 80 goal areas. The following areas are included in this download: Language. Vocabulary. Word-finding. receptive & expressive language. pragmatic language. comprehension.
Middle School Goal Setting Worksheet
The SMART Method (15 minutes): Introduce the students to the SMART method of goal setting - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Explain each term and provide examples. Setting Personal Goals (20 minutes): Hand out the middle school goal-setting worksheet and guide the students in setting their own SMART goals.
Vocabulary Activities, Goals, and EBP
Shannon is a pediatric SLP and the creator behind Speechy Musings. As an SLP, she is most passionate about language, literacy, and AAC. Outside of being an SLP, she loves hiking, camping, dogs, and travel. Activities and goal ideas to target vocabulary in speech therapy with well-designed, no-prep, printable or digital, evidence-based worksheets.
How to Use SLP Now's Goal Bank to Write Your Speech Students' IEPs
2. Identify goal targets that impact the student academically/socially. Parent and teacher report that Student replaces /k/ with /t/ (e.g. "cat" is spelled "tat") in their spelling. It is also hard to understand what the student is asking or commenting when talking with the teacher and peers in the classroom. 3.
SMART Goal Bank: Elementary
RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE: SMART Goal Bank. STUDENT will accurately complete two-step directions with no more than one verbal or visual prompt/cue with 80% accuracy or better over three consecutive sessions. After being read or reading academically appropriate information, STUDENT will identify the correct answer from 3 multiple choice options with no ...
Building Social Communication: Pragmatic Skills Goals in Middle School
IV. Examples of Pragmatic Skills Goals. Here are some examples of pragmatic skills goals that can be set for middle school students: A. Active listening and turn-taking. Goal: Take turns during conversations by waiting for a pause before speaking and actively listen to others without interrupting. B. Nonverbal communication and body language
How to Write Stuttering & Fluency Goals for School-Age Students
1. Counseling. As speech-language pathologists, it is huge that we understand the attitude and emotions our students have toward their stuttering. Counseling goals may be social, such as initiating conversation with peers or creating a hierarchy of least to most stressful speaking situations. 2.
75+ Receptive Language Goals Speech Therapy {Goal Bank}
If we take a sample goal: Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy. "Given 3 to 5 objects or pictures and an attribute (e.g, color, size, shape, number, texture, etc.), STUDENT will select 2-3 objects or pictures that do not share that same attribute with 80% accuracy over 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions.". Reduced Number or Trials ...
Speech-Language Pathology IEP Goals: A Complete Guide and Goal Bank
Introduction ‍ Effective communication is the cornerstone of a student's education and overall development. For some students facing unique communication challenges, Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) play a crucial role in paving the way toward proficient communication. Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals in Speech-Language Pathology serve as powerful tools, uniquely tailored to ...
Middle School Speech Therapy Activities
Middle School Speech Therapy Activities Are you a speech-language professional or parent of a middle schooler with speech/language problems? If so, you've come to the right place! Check out my fantastic speech therapy resources for children in middle school. Join the Hub to Access (Free Trial)
Back to Basics: Goal Writing for School-based SLPs
There is no set way and is largely dependent on how the goal is written. Achievable - An achievable goal would contain, as an example, "within 36 weeks" or "within 12 months.". Specify the timeline that the student has to achieve that goal and objective. Oftentimes, our long-term goal is for a 12-month period.
Life Skills Middle and High School IEP Goal Bank
Life Skills Middle and High School IEP Goal Bank. Working at the middle and high school level can be so very rewarding! Seeing my students become young adults and go into the world is an amazing feeling. Making sure to provide functional speech therapy services can be a bit overwhelming as students at this age can have a variety of needs.
Professional & Student Learning Goals for SLPs
2018-2019. Student Learning Goal. By the end of the 2018-2019 school year, my students will demonstrate at least moderate growth in knowledge and understanding of speech/language goals by stating their individualized targets at the end of each session with 80% accuracy in four out of five sessions. At the start of the school year, I will create ...
Understanding Pragmatic Language in Middle School: A Comprehensive
Setting pragmatic language goals is crucial for supporting middle school students in their social and emotional development. By identifying specific areas for improvement, students can work towards enhancing their pragmatic language skills and building meaningful connections with others. Here are some examples of pragmatic language goals for ...
Social Skills Activities for Middle Schoolers: Speech Therapy Goals and
Social Skills Activities for Middle Schoolers: Speech Therapy Goals and Ideas Many of our children with language delays also have trouble with social skills. This may be due to certain conditions that impair social skills, like autism, or it may just be because these children have trouble learning language and social interactions rely heavily on language
Social Pragmatic Goals In Speech Therapy: Everything You Need To Know
According to Attitude Magazine people with social pragmatic language disorder may also struggle with: Responding to others. Using gestures such as waving and pointing. Taking turns when talking. Talking about emotions and feelings. Staying on topic. Adjusting speech to fit different people and different circumstances.

Middle School Language Goals

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Speech Therapy Goal Bank for Middle School [grades 6-8]

Description

Questions & Answers

Literacy Based Therapy

Speech Sounds

The Bookshelf

Please feel free to use any of these as a base to create goals for your students but be sure to align the goals to your student’s timeline and ability ??

Expressive Language: SMART Goal Bank

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE: SMART Goal Bank

SEMANTICS: SMART Goal Bank

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75+ Receptive Language Goals Speech Therapy {Goal Bank}

Visual Prompts

Expressive Language Skills – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

Long-Term Goals – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

Following Directions

Answering Questions

Association

Categorizations

Similarities

Differences

Multiple Meaning Words

Prepositions

SEE ALSO: 432+ Free Measurable IEP Goals and Objectives Bank

If we take a sample goal: Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

Data Collection – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

Measurable Goals – Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

SEE ALSO: 193+ Multiple Meaning Words Grouped by Grade + Free Worksheets

Receptive Language: Free Activities List

Complex Sentences

Expressive Language Difficulties

Short Story

Answer Questions

Structured Language Activities

Vocabulary Word

Correct Sentence

SEE ALSO: IEP Goal Bank Posts

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In Conclusion: Receptive Language Goals for Speech Therapy

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Speech-Language Pathology IEP Goals: A Complete Guide and Goal Bank

Introduction

Understanding Speech-Language Pathology IEP Goals

Defining IEP Goals: Personalized Pathways to Success

The Role of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP)

The Significance of IEP Goals in Speech-Language Pathology

The IEP Process: From Referral to Evaluation:

The IEP Process Unveiled

Crafting Effective SLP IEP Goals

Common SLP IEP Goal Areas

IEP Goal Bank for Speech-Language Pathology

Expressive Language

Receptive Language

Fluency (Stuttering)

Social Communication and Pragmatics:

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