IEP goals.

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Hi,

My 6-yr-old's IEP is in September and I would appreciate inputs on possible goals. How many total goals is "reasonable" in the IEP of a kid like my son (on the lower end of the spectrum with significant cognitive, language and motor skills delays) ?

If wishes were horses, and I owned a few, then I would want fewer goals - no more than 1 or 2 for each "domain" - that end up being targeted more intensively, than a broad range of goals and zeros across the board, come reporting time (which has happened before). I know that every child is different but would appreciate your general feedback / advise on how to approach goal setting in the school setting.

Thanks.

What areas are most important to you right now? What do you think will have the most impact on his overall functioning?

I am sorry I cannot give you specific goals as I was never in your shoes as our challenges were different. But I do not think it is wrong or odd that you want to find a few areas of high impact and focus on them the most. There are probably skills that, although may be "age appropriate" for you son right now, may not be of importance (think tying shoes and stuff like that). Could you start by listing what you think are the critical building blocks right now?

Does he have a goal in every single domain? If so, I'd agree that one or two goals per domain is enough, otherwise the "achievable" part of the goal can't be met. If you feel there are too many, ask what strategy the team has for each individual goal and make sure the strategies are doable in the course of a single day.

I thought this article was helpful: http://blog.kps4parents.org/?p=679

Our advocate suggested a max of 4 per service area, so my son has 4 OT, 4 speech, 4 academic, and 4 functional/behavioral. I think your idea of limiting it to 2 per area to keep the providers focused would work.

Something to think about, also: we hadn't realized in my son's first IEP that they were doubling service hours (meaning, they were "counting" his social skills class time as speech therapy because both providers were there, so instead of 1 hour, we were getting 30 minutes.) While this was grossly inappropriate for our kid who really needed more frequent support, I can see that it might be a good strategy if a child has multiple areas of need that can be served in one place.

If they appear to be working on some goals simultaneously, and ask exactly how that will work, in terms of who will be in charge of monitoring which goal, and when. You might be able to judge better where to insist on fewer goals and where to give a little.

A large part of the problem with IEP meetings is that the providers all speak in shorthand and don't explain things to parents; sometimes things that make no sense actually work in the real world but you can't tell that because they didn't explain...and also, sometimes things that make no sense, in fact, make no sense.