Writing Smart Targets

[Mum of 3]

Any suggestions for targets for a boy who picks and chooses from the curriculum, won't use a vis timetable, hates reading, writing, drawing, painting, and has small and large motor problems! ().

 

At his last meeting, we set a target that he would do one thing a day that he would go and show to an adult (this is because he regularly goes 'walkabout' in school, looking for adults to chat with!), but I don't think he's done this, because whenever I've asked him if he's shown anyone his work, he looks at me as if I'm mad ( ). This target was supposed to get him to start and finish things in the classroom, but now I think it's just a bit too subtle...it also relies on him actually wanting to share his acievements and recognising that an adult will praise him for showing his work...I don't quite think he's there yet.

 

He also has problems with the transition from home to school,and I have huge problems with him in the mornings, so we put a target i place that he would come to school early and have a job to do first thing. This too fizzled out very quickly. I think it's too reliant on an adult to set him up with something...it's also not very 'smart', is it?

 

He also has targets to do with joining a group for playing together with an adult, and joining a small group for large motor skills outside. Again, these are heavily reliant on the adult actually doing it, and knowing what to do to bring him on once he's in the group!

 

So, if any of you can think of any better things we can put in place, please come forward!

 

He's 5 and a half, by the way, and in Reception.

[julieann]

Any suggestions for targets for a boy who picks and chooses from the curriculum, won't use a vis timetable, hates reading, writing, drawing, painting, and has small and large motor problems! ().

 

Praise doesn't work for lots of children. Rewards seem to work better. It has to be something the child likes or likes doing.

 

How about 3 easily achievable targets. Earning a smiley face reward on a small laminated card for each target achieved.

 

3 smiley faces earns a reward of something that he likes to do. Does he have an interest. Perhaps a set time with a favourite toy.

 

He can only collect his smiley faces if he is in the classroom.

 

Ask for new targets as you feel that the old ones are to difficult for staff to impliment on a regular basis.

 

Julieann.

[NobbyNobbs]

why does he pick and choose from the curriculum? does that mean he chooses not to do things he doesn't like? if so that sounds like a rather strange situation to place a child who can't possibly know whats best for himself in. perhaps he needs a bit less control over such big decisions (ASD people often have trouble making descisions after all)

[Mum of 3]

why does he pick and choose from the curriculum? does that mean he chooses not to do things he doesn't like? if so that sounds like a rather strange situation to place a child who can't possibly know whats best for himself in. perhaps he needs a bit less control over such big decisions (ASD people often have trouble making descisions after all)

 

Because he's in Reception, it's a 'continuous Curriculum', where the children have open access to a wide range of activities, and some activities run by the staff, that they encourage the children to join. As far as I can see, there are areas that G just doesn't choose to access, such as painting, sticking, 'free'writing, anything to do with other children...Basically, he'll just sit quietly and look at books all day (he can't read yet-says he doesn't see the point when he can tell the story from the pictures!)

[Sally44]

Sounds like my son in reception - except in was also showing alot of avoidance behaviours as well as getting very upset.

It sounds like he is mainstream?

I found in my son's former school that they were forever setting targets that were not SMART and they did not seem to understand the basic skills needed for a child to be able to do the target.

For example if he is not writing, painting, drawing etc has his handwriting skills been assessed? You say he has fine and gross motor problems. That being the case that could be a major cause behind his lack of writing or painting.

My son was like that to. Up until quite recently (he is now 8), he did not draw pictures at all. It was like he did not know whether to start. The OT said this was a motor planning problem. You have to be able to think about what you are going to draw and how to approach it, start it, plan it etc. Sometimes difficulties with imagination can mean they literally have no idea of what to draw. When my son did begin drawing he started by only wanting to copy things he had already seen.

Also the 'chaos' of the open teaching methods of lots of tables being set up with different activities left my son totally bewildered. He had no idea of what he should be doing and therefore attempted to occupy himself with things he enjoyed. There was too little structure, no visual reinforcement, no useful help from a TA.

At my son's current school (mixed mainstream and SEN with a specialism in ASDs), they have 'choose time' built into the timetable. It is on their visual timetables. They do their literacy and numeracy work and then they have 15 mins choose time which is an activity they have chosen themselves.

I would suggest you involve your local Parent Partnership. They should know all about SMART targets and can accompany you to IEP/MEP meetings. I would also record in writing by sending a letter into school about the current targets. It sounds like they are 'having a go' and it isn't working or they are losing interest. Children with an ASD need routine and consistency. Have school asked for outside help from SALT and Educational Psychologist?

Remember on IEPs/MEPs at review to identify if your child has not met the target and for that to be recorded on the sheet. That is your evidence that school are not meeting his needs and that he is not making progress. You can use these in the future if you ask for a Statutory Assessment towards a Statement. On one of my son's earliest IEPs it said that they would check that my son understood what he needed to do by getting him to repeat back what was said to him. My son is echolalic. At that stage he could repeat hours of DVD dialogue without understanding the meaning behind it. So I sent in a letter saying that I thought their target was inappropriate. The SALT got involved and said that they could check by asking him to explain in his own words what he was supposed to do.

You may find that they just don't have enough knowledge of the skills needed to undertake a certain task. For example, if they think that an adult spending time in the playground is going to teach him social skills then they don't understand ASDs. The whole point of that being that these children and adults do not learn from watching other people otherwise they wouldn't have an ASD because they mainly come from NT families and if they could learn by watching they would have learnt from us at home! They need to be taught explicitly by experienced professionals who then generalise that skill out from the therapy session into the classroom or playground. So, for example, my son has had to learn to recognise the children in his class by name - otherwise how can you shout to a child in the playground and get their attention that you want to play if you don't know their name? He has been taught to initiate play by asking to join in. He has spent alot of time being given information to go and tell someone about eg. go and ask the Mrs D in the office what she had for breakfast. He is currently being prompted to notice what other people are doing, saying, wearing etc so that he becomes more aware of other people in their environment and what is going on around him. And a suitably qualified SALT has put together this programme in weekly therapy sessions in school, with the TA practising it daily in school. These skills don't just happen on their own. They have to be taught. And without these basic skills I have mentioned, how do they expect a child to just go into the playground and interact/socialise and play?

If your son has a thorough SALT assessment, you may find that he cannot process huge amounts of verbal information. In the classroom he may need to be taught in small groups because whole class learning is too much and he cannot pay attention and understand what he needs to do. My son is in a mainstream classroom, but always works in small groups. He has auditory processing problems, auditory delays, sensory integration issues that all affect his level of distractability and levels of concentration.

And you need to know that every child is expected to make an average progress in an academic year unless they have evidence of learning difficulties. So if your child is not making progress they cannot just put it down to an ASD. They have to investigate it - usually the Educational Psychologist. For example my son has higher than average cognitive ability. But at 8 he is not reading or writing independently yet. He is just on the verge I think. But he has made more progress this September at his new school than the 3 years he spent at his former school. My son is also considered to have dyslexia and dyscalculia. If your child cannot read or write and does not appear to be learning his letters, whole flashcards or phonics etc then they need to have this as a consideration. They don't assess before age 7 for dyslexia. But they can use dyslexia friendly methods to help him learn.

[KarenT]

I use SMART targets with J. I set them out in the form of a social story with a table insert, and we have regular progress meetings to see how he's getting on with the individual goals, look at how I can help him achieve them and remind him of why they're important. We build in lots of reward opportunities along the way as we run in six month periods, which can be a long time for a child not to see any benefit for his efforts, however experience has taught me that we need to be working on individual goals for at least that long before we see improvements, and often they're carried over to the next period. We have a core of about six goals that lead to a specific prize (usually Lego as that motivates J the most), with some lesser, additional ones for minor prizes.

 

I don't have experience of SMART targets with children as young as your son (J is 10), not sure if it's a high expectation for someone of his age, but clearly you'd have to tailor the targets to his age and ability and perhaps give longer for him to achieve them. Remember what SMART stands for (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Reward-driven/Relevant (depending on the source you read), Time-limited) and this will help you set them.

 

If you want to see our example of how I use SMART with J, PM me an email address and I'll send them on.

 

Karen

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[Mum of 3]

Thanks, Karen. I've pm'd you.

 

Sally, a couple of things you said really struck a chord...it makes sense that he's not able to plan how to start with drawing and writing...processing all those things at once, as well as thinking about the physical things of controlling the pencil and holding the paper still...all these things fit with the way he behaves around drawing/ writing. He is very reluctant to write anything...last night, we did some school work, and he read about 6 pages of his reading book (good for him-I was pleased with this ), but would only draw 1 picture-of a goat (which he copied from his reading book-he seems much happier copying), and then wrote 'goat' as 'taog', but couldn't see he'd written goat backwards, even when I put the printed word next to his. This is the first time I 've seen him reverse like this...he's also recently been mixing up b and d, whereas previously he was fine on these (I know because it surprised me that he'd 'got it'!).

I will ask for him to be looked at by an OT as part fo his assessment.

 

Also, recognising friends...I mentioned to his teacher that he didn't know alot of the names of his classmates, and she seemed surprised. She sat down with him in a group and went through some photos and he knew everyone, so we put it down to him not wating to tell me. Now I'm wondering if it's because he doesn't know them out of context...when he's in the classroom with Teech, and the photo album, he can say their names...see them in the street, especially out of uniform, and he knows he knows them, vaguely, but can't name them.

 

I think you're right about them putting his lack of progress down to ASD...I think I've been doing the same...even before a dx! Maybe it's time to challenge that view...

[call me jaded]

I think a smart target would be almost impossible to achieve without significant support. What does he get? It doesn't sound like anything.

 

Getting out of the classroom does seem to be a motivator, so perhaps that's what you need to build on.

[Sally44]

And I think it is worth looking at 'why' he maybe reluctant to do things or 'why' he tries to leave the classroom. In my son's case it turned out to be severe problems with understanding receptive speech although his expressive speech was assessed as age appropriate. (He later went on to get a diagnosis of Semantic Pragmatic Speech Disorder).

So in whole class situation he did not know what he should be doing. He tended to copy the other children ie. always about 5 seconds behind what they were doing. Although they said that was a good coping strategy I was not happy with it because it is very stressful. Imagine being in a job where you do now know what you are doing and cannot understand the language well enough or have enough social skills to ask for help leaving you having to try to copy your work mates. I think any adult in that situation would be off sick with stress after a couple of weeks!

He also needed to see things to understanding them so lessons had to be practicle. Writing and drawing had to be copying things.

He is suspected of having dyslexia. He writes things back to front and upside down and also mirror image. He used to memorise his reading book and could do this after the first reading.

He needed more professional input and experienced teachers. I did end up having to change his school which we went to tribunal for as well as for the Statement.

My son frequently tried to slip out of class. He blocked the school toilets with paper three times and I was told the school were very angry with that. I was angry that no-one had noticed that he was missing from the lesson on three occasions giving him time to do it! And also what was motivating him to need to escape. It turned out to be alot of Sensory Issues meaning he simply could not tolerate that environment for long periods of time. The same was true of assembly and the dinner hall. He also struggled in the playground and did not have any help with learning some basic social skills.

Your own son may simply not know how to approach other children to play. That can be taught. My son now joins in at school and even plays football with the rest of the boys which was unthinkable 2 years ago.

So just look at anything he is struggling with and try to see what the basic skills needed to complete the task are. School should be asking for advice on this. You can put your requests in writing as this is also proof that you have told school of difficulties and therefore they should act on them.

Targets on IEPs should be smart regardless of the age of the child. The Parent Partnership should be able to help you with that.

 

[rgo]

Hi there

I have been a teacher in Autism for a very long time and now work as an independent consultant advising schools and families- and one thing schools can't do without support is make there targets SMART.....I would try to get them to be more specific in their target- eg to complete one activity in the classroom per day and then build on that....maybe adding for another target (because completing and task then showing it to someone else is 2 targets) To show a completed piece of work to a familiar adult once per day.

Is the aim to get him to finish something or to show an adult???? i would guess if he is looking for adult attention the showing part may not be an issue and therefore he doesn't need to work on it?!!

 

Edited in line with forum rules on advertising - Kathryn

Edited August 17, 2009 by Kathryn