If you’re a Mom of a child with special needs keep reading as I’m going to walk you through the 3 steps I use to create great IEP goals.

Do IEP goals totally stress you out?  

If they do you are in good company Mama Bear! Most Moms of kids with special needs become stressed over IEP goals, myself included.  

We want what is best for our children.  Of course we are going to get a little (or A LOT) anxious when it comes to creating and deciding on IEP goals.  

What should they be? 

How do I know if they are good goals? 

Are we focusing on the wrong stuff? 

HELP! 

Am I right?

It’s going to be OK.  I’m here to help you through it. 

YOU are the Mama Bear.  YOU know your child better than anyone else and while you may not (or perhaps you may) have a degree in education YOU bring important information to the table.

You are an expert on your child and should be actively involved in creating and deciding the goals for your child’s IEP. 

IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan. It also can stand for Inducing Expletives and Palpitations but I’m hoping to help you out to prevent this!

Ok. Let’s break it down into three easy steps to creating great IEP goals.

Creating Great IEP Goals Step #1: Create a vision statement and life map

When creating and deciding on your child’s IEP goals look at your child’s vision statement and life map. 

If you have no idea what I am referring to you are going to want to check out my blog posts

Five Reasons You Need To Create A Vision Statement For Your Child With Special Needs

Creating A Life Map For Your Child With Special Needs.

If you want even more guidance then be sure to check out my E-workbook

A New Mom’s Guide To Creating A Vision Statement And Life Map For Your Child With Special Needs.

Your child’s vision statement is how you and your child envision their life and their future. The life map is the plan to get there.

In order to create these things you need to answer big questions such as where will your child live as an adult and what does a typical day look like for him or her?

Once you have a vision for their life, you know where you need to go and the life map is your blueprint giving you a better idea of which goals are needed in the IEP.

Creating Great IEP Goals Step #2: Determine your child’s present level of performance (PLOP)

The next step is determining your child’s present level of performance or PLOP.

Can your child identify the letters of the alphabet? Can your child do basic addition? Can your child carry on a conversation? 

Go ahead and write down their PLOP in different areas. I tend to break it down into three areas.

Academics.

Social skills. 

Life skills.

Once I have determined my child’s PLOP in each area I ask myself what would I like Max to achieve by the end of the school year in each area? 

Now, this isn’t just all me.  I do ask for input from my husband, Max, and other people who know him and our family well.  

Then I get to work creating IEP goals.  

Creating Great IEP Goals Step #3: Create SMART IEP goals

Not all goals are created equal.

Let me say it again but a little louder…Not all goals are created equal.

Max will learn the alphabet.

When given two uppercase letter cards Max will correctly point to the correct letter card when asked to identify one of the letters with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

See the difference?

You want to create SMART IEP goals.

SMART IEP Goals: Specific

Target an academic achievement (something you want your kid to learn) or a functional performance (something you want your kid to do).

Make it very clear what knowledge or skill will be taught and how progress will be measured. 

 In the sample goals above the first one is not very specific.  

Max will learn the alphabet. 

Um ok, is he going to learn uppercase or lowercase letters? How is it going to be measured? If he sings the alphabet song does that mean he met the goal?

In the second one we know Max will be identifying uppercase letters only as well as how he is going to identify them.

SMART IEP Goals: Measurable

You need a way to track progress. When deciding on how the goal is going to be measured think about your child. 

Max has terrible handwriting. If in the goal we were asking him to write the requested letter I don’t feel we would be measuring accurately which upper case letters he knows and which ones he does not. 

The results may be skewed because he may choose to write a letter that is easier for him to write than the one requested (I think he would write a lot of O’s and L’s).  

Max can also be difficult to understand so I would worry the results may be inaccurate if the examiner held up a letter card and asked him to identify the letter verbally. They may not understand him. 

Just think how frustrating this could be if you were being tested on something and the examiner didn’t understand you!

Try to keep it as objective as possible and use numbers to decide when the goal is met. In the SMART IEP goal sample it will be met when Max answers with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities. 

SMART IEP Goals: Attainable

Is it realistic for your child to achieve the goal in one school year? If the answer is no then maybe you need to break the goal down into two parts. 

Put the first part of the goal into the IEP and then the following year, assuming the first part has been met, you can put the second half of the goal into the IEP. 

Definitely don’t short change your child, but don’t set them up for failure either. 

If you child can’t identify the letters of the alphabet yet it would be a bit far-fetched to write an IEP goal stating they will be reading from a 1st grade level book at an average of 34 correct words per minute.  

SMART IEP Goals: Relevant

Are the IEP goals relevant to your child and to your family? 

This goes back to your Life Map. Reference that baby multiple times during this process!  

For example, I could care less if Max learns to write cursive. You may feel differently and that’s alright.  I don’t feel Max learning how to write in cursive is relevant to our day to day lives so I am definitely not going to want it as an IEP goal.

SMART IEP Goals: Time Limited

Time is one of our most valuable commodities.  

Your child only has so many years in the education system.  Make sure you are making the most of those years and your child is making progress. 

Create goals you feel your child can accomplish in the time span of one academic school year.  Throughout the school year make sure you are receiving regular reports on your child’s progress towards those goals.  

These reports will let you know if your child is on target to meet those goals.  If your child is rocking it and meets the goal mid-year yippee! 

You can always create another goal to take its place or the team can focus on one of the other goals they may be struggling with.  If it looks like your child is NOT going to meet the goal I would call an IEP team meeting and discuss what can be done to help your child get back on track to successfully meet that IEP goal by the end of the year.

Ok Mama Bears!  There are the 3 steps you need to create great IEP goals. You are now ready to help write some rocking IEP goals for your child with special needs!  

Let’s do this!

If you found this post helpful then consider reading…

Least Restrictive Environment or LRE: A Guide For The Special Needs Mom

My Top 5 IEP Survival Tips For The Mom Of A Child With Special Needs

Dandelion Tribe Take Away: Write great IEP goals with these three steps. Step 1: Creat a vision statement and life map. Step 2: Determine your child’s present level of performance (PLOP). Step 3: Create SMART IEP goals. Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Relevant. Time Limited. 

Mama Bear Share: What are some of your tips for writing great IEP goals?  Go ahead and share your one or two of awesome IEP goals YOU helped create!