Background
When I
started with homeschooling for Aakash, I was pondering on the goal setting for
him. Setting goal that will meet his educational needs and take him to the next
level was one aspect of it. But another aspect was that I was owning his full
day i.e all of his waking hours which could be minimum of 16 hours. It
presented lot of opportunities to do many things but there was also an
overwhelming fear of whether I could do anything at all.
Also as I was
going to be the teacher at home, I wanted some independent view of the goals
that could be taken for him. Also needed a reviewer to verify the progress we
were making. One of the therapists who earlier worked with Aakash came to our
rescue. She agreed to help me set the goals
and to review the progress we (myself and Aakash) were making occasionally as
well.
This support
helped me make my first step in homeschooling with confidence. The reviews she
did was very helpful. I had taken videos of our activities which helped in the
review process and setting the next set of goals.
After a
point of time I started to setup the goals by myself. This article is a summary
of my experience in this area.
Areas for setting goals
Aakash was
not very much into arts, crafts or sports. Play sort of activity was also not a
big attraction for him. Considering his interest areas and limitations like
above, I started of the goals in these areas:
(i)
ADL(Activities for Daily Living)
(ii)
Sensory needs management
(iii)
Communications
(iv)
Speech
(v)
Socialisation and
(vi)
Academics
Approach for setting the goals
But the
above are very the growth areas to focus. But for setting up of a specific, workable
goal, I take his
a. interest
b. strength
c. things he
need to know and
d. logical
steps to accomplish something,
into
consideration.
Let me
explain this with an example.
1.
Aakash’s one of the interest was to drink milk
as soon as he got up in the morning
2.
His strength is visuals
3.
So considering his interest/need at that time (drinking
milk first thing in the morning), his strength at that time (picture
communication), developed my first logical goal as “exchange picture for
getting milk”.
Once he
learnt to exchange picture, the next goal was to say “Milk”. When I worked with
his goal, at a point time of time he said “Mi” sound along with giving me the
picture.
Once he was
able to say Milk properly I took the next goal where he will be able to
verbalise “Give Milk”. Now I am working on making him say,”Can you give me
milk”?
How do I achieve the goals?
Simple
approach I follow to achieve the goals are
1.
Jot down the goals in a paper
2.
Break the goals in to smaller steps(wherever
possible)
3.
Prepare materials/visuals myself to achieve
goals.
Buy books/download related YouTube videos/buy
educational CDs if available/apps related to goals.
I do these
basic preparation to any of the goals I have taken.
How to jot
down the goals in the paper
This is the
sheet I use to list down the goals. This goal sheet keeps me reminding of the
goals I have taken.
Break the
goals into smaller steps
This is
nothing but steps involved in achieving the goals. Please visit some of my
specific articles like Brushing through links below to break the goals into
simple tasks.
Prepare materials/visuals
Now I
started to use readymade books and online resources. When I started homeschooling,
I prepared customized materials. I will explain how I customize the material in
separate posting. But below link (on my experience of teaching colours to my
son) should give you an idea in terms of the materials and visuals I prepare
for teaching a concept
Hope this
article gave you an idea of the goal setting process and ways to accomplish
them. However setting goals in each and every area like ADL, sensory management
are separate subjects by themselves. I will write separate articles about my
experience on them.
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Please click the following link for a comprehensive documentation of my journey with Aakash: Click Here
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