Speech Therapy Goals and Why They Are Important

Speech therapy goals are goals set for your child which relate to their individual journey with speech pathology and help us know exactly why they are here are what we want to achieve.

Goals are set with a lot of collaboration with parents and families, especially as you know your child best and you are their main communication partners. You spend the most time with them, see how they interact, how they develop, their interests and where they need support. All this information is extremely helpful to know when setting goals and helps us take a Family Centred Approach to therapy. This means that we work in partnership with families to better understand their circumstances (aspects of daily life, routines, etc) and to help parents decide what strategies will best suit their child and family.

Goals are determined by identifying your child’s needs and discussing in which areas they need support and deciding together how that will happen.

Not every child’s goals are going to be the same. Every child will have unique communication needs and goals are always made with your child in mind – considering their unique situation and environment.

What are they?

When creating goals, we can break them into many different aspects, including:

• Long Term Goals: Big picture goals that help give an overview of what you’re wanting to achieve.

• Short Term Goals: Break down long term goals into smaller more specific goals.

• Session Goals: Small goals that are set for each session. They are the building blocks that help us work towards our short-term goals and eventually our long-term goals.

Why are they important?

• Goals help your child’s speech pathologist determine the best approach for therapy and plan therapy sessions.

• Goals help us know how your child is tracking and help your child’s speech pathologist make decisions regarding the direction of therapy and if any adjustments need to be made to better support your child to achieve their goals.

• As goals are set as a team including the parent, child and speech pathologist, they help ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same point

• Goals help give direction to therapy and help us understand how your child is progressing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Feel free to leave any comments or questions about speech pathology goals below!