How to Set Goals for Your IEP

1. Start with your child’s strengths. What are they good at? What do they enjoy doing? What are their interests? Once you know your child’s strengths, you can start to build on them and develop goals that will challenge them and help them grow.

2. Identify your child’s needs. What areas do they need to improve in? What skills do they lack? Once you know your child’s needs, you can develop goals that will address those areas and help them to catch up.

3. Set SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This means that they are clear, concise, and easy to understand. They are also something that your child can actually achieve, and that are relevant to their educational journey. And they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

* Specific: Goals should be specific and well-defined. For example, instead of setting a goal to “improve reading skills,” a specific goal might be to “read 20 minutes each day.”

* Measurable: Goals should be measurable so that you can track progress. For example, you might track the number of books your child reads each month.

* Achievable: Goals should be challenging but achievable. If a goal is too difficult, your child may become discouraged and give up. For example, if your child is currently reading at a first-grade level, setting a goal to read at a fifth-grade level by the end of the school year may not be achievable.

* Relevant: Goals should be relevant to your child’s educational needs and interests.

* Time-bound: Goals should be time-bound so that you can track progress and hold your child accountable.

4. Involve your child in the process. Talk to your child about his/her strengths and needs. Ask them what they want to achieve. This is a great way to get your child buy-in and make sure that they are motivated to reach their goals.

5. Make a plan. Once you have developed goals, you need to make a plan for how you are going to achieve them. This may involve breaking down goals into smaller steps, creating a timeline, and identifying resources and support that will be needed.

6. Monitor progress. Regularly review your child’s progress and adjust your plan as needed. This will help you to ensure that your child is on track to meet his/her goals.