IEP goals determine what specific skills and concepts special education teachers and related service providers will work on with your child. Part 1 of this blog series talked about SMART Goals. This post will talk about real-world goals.
Remember, IEPs are regulated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which states that IEPs are designed to meet your child’s unique needs and to prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. Therefore each IEP goal is not simply to help your student pass their classes this school year. They should be preparing them for the future.
IEP goals need to take into account a whole bunch of information including:
- Your parent input statement and priorities for your child
- Your child’s current level of performance- in other words, what can they do and what skills do they need to work on
- Your child’s strengths and interests
- Interventions and/or supports your child needs in order to achieve this goal
As a parent, you are an expert on your child and IEP goals should not be written alone. The entire IEP is a team effort and you are an equal member of that team. You can collaborate with the school-based team on goals before the meeting, or you can be ready to discuss them during the meeting. Your input helps the IEP determine if the goals are relevant to your child, most important for what they need to succeed in the future, and will help your child learn and grow right now.
Let’s look at a couple of examples:
Example 1: Dr. Jo will be able to solve 100 1-digit by 1-digit multiplication problems in one minute.
Discussion: Is this a reasonable goal? I’ll be honest. I’ve never been fast with my math facts. A teacher could easily say I need this goal. Even today, I don’t think I would be able to meet this goal. There are too many problems in too little time, and it only measures my ability to memorize facts quickly. Sure, it’s handy to know multiplication facts fluently, but it is not necessary in my everyday life. I don’t solve random multiplication problems out of context, I don’t have a time limit, and I do have tools I can use to help me solve math problems very quickly.
A better goal might be something like:
Dr. Jo will be able to use tools such as multiplication charts, number lines, and a calculator to solve realistic word problems using multiplication.
This goal now allows me to actually problem solve in real-life settings. That is a much more important skill that I do use in my real, everyday life, and it still works on multiplication in the school setting.
Example 2: Dr. Jo will read 50 sight words on flashcards.
Discussion: How often are you reading individual words completely out of context? Probably never. Also, how boring would it be to read 50 random words? That’s not something I would want to do, especially if I struggle with reading.
A better goal might be something like:
When given a book on a topic of interest and at Dr. Jo’s reading level, Dr. Jo will be able to read the sight words in a 100-word passage with 90% accuracy.
This goal still assesses my ability to read sight words, but now it’s presented in a way that I will actually use in my real life. It also takes into account my interests and provides me with a more interesting and engaging way to read sight words.
Both examples here address academic needs, but remember that goals can also address social-emotional needs and independent functioning needs as well as OT, PT, speech, and any other related service your child needs.
Want to make sure your child has real-world goals in their IEP? Set up a free 15-minute phone call and we can talk all about goals!