Setting appropriate speech goals help speech language pathologists set a game plan for therapy, organize speech targets, and plan the trajectory of remediation. It is commonly understood that goals specific to speech and language should be S.M.A.R.T., specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely; however, the details we include within each of these specific domains may differ based upon the nature of the child’s particular speech sound disorder. The underlying deficit(s) contributing most to a child’s speech sound disorder will often determine how a particular goal is addressed, most frequently in terms of phonetic context and complexity of the targets, as well as the criterion with which it should be measured. For example, research has shown that once a child with a phonological deficit achieves generalization of a target sound in spontaneous speech with at least 50% accuracy, mastery of that skill will likely continue to emerge without direct intervention (Hodson & Paden, 1983; Williams, 2012). Conversely, if the child’s speech sound disorder is motoric in nature, as with articulation errors at the phonetic level, then careful selection of phonetic contexts and increased criterion levels should be considered. This presentation will focus on how S.M.A.R.T. goals may be written for children who have phonological delays and disorders, as well as motor-based articulation errors and how goal writing may differ across the five S.M.A.R.T. domains.
This course is offered for 0.05 ASHA CEUs, Intermediate Level, Professional Area, Professional Area