Goals are an important part of life especially for motivation and drive. I am very goal oriented and always setting personal goals. Goals are also an important component to therapy. Goals measure progress and are necessary to justify continued services to funding sources. Goal writing can be a daunting task since so much of therapy is centered around the goals. For me goal writing is like putting pieces of a puzzle together because there are so many factors to consider in order for the pieces to come together correctly. Some factors that need to be considered include: caregiver concerns, cognitive abilities, independence, patient needs, age equivalencies, testing scores, observations, etc. Despite all of the factors that need to be considered I enjoy putting all of the pieces together to write attainable, client centered goals that focus on the whole person.
Here are my top 5 tips for goal writing:
- Get input: ask the caregiver and/or patient what they want to work on and achieve. More times than not the caregiver and/or patient will provide valuable input and help guide you in the right direction. Also if a patient is working on something that is meaningful to them they are more likely to work on the goal and make progress.
- Measure twice, cut once: make goals that are measurable by including percentages, accuracy, level of assist, and attempts to determine progress.
- State skills: state the skills that you are addressing and the purpose of the goal to explain what you are working on to funding sources and caregivers.
- Use simple terms: use layman’s terms so that the caregiver and patient understand what you are working on and are more likely to follow through with carryover.
- Cognition is key: write goals that meet the child where they are at cognitively so that they are attainable (i.e. a child who is chronologically 8 years old but test at a 3 year level you would not write a goal about writing sentences but instead you would write a goal about prewriting strokes).
Chelsea’s Clubhouse 