Down syndrome is a lifelong disorder marked by developmental delays and intellectual impairment. Each child with Down syndrome can benefit from early intervention and well-defined goals that are consistently implemented. Realistic goals need to reflect the individual child's needs, consider long-term effects and define the path to reach the goal.
Step 1
Assemble a team that includes all the people who will be working with your child. This may be grandparents, babysitters, teachers or health professionals. Working as a team is important for two reasons. First, everyone will have a different and valuable perspective that can be used for developing realistic goals. And second, consistency between people and environments is the key to effectively achieving goals.
Step 2
Assess your child's strengths and weaknesses. Ask everyone on the team to write a list describing what they see as your child's strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to consider personality, natural temperament, preferred activities, physical challenges, developmental milestones, emotional or behavioral issues, socialization, and academic progress. The weaknesses will be used to create goals. The strengths will be leveraged in every way imaginable to build skills.
Step 3
Target desired outcomes. Once the areas that need help are identified, prioritize them and choose those that are most important to address. You want to create opportunities for success, so don't risk overwhelming your child by trying to achieve or change too much at one time.
Step 4
Write specific goals. Everyone on the team should understand the goals and consistently follow the plan. This can only be accomplished if your goals are written to be very specific. Don't develop general statements such as you want your child to be able to read. Instead the goal should state, "I want my child to read 12 words within three months."
Step 5
Break the goal into small steps. The only way to write a realistic goal is to define small steps that build to the goal. Make sure each step is measurable. Describe what tools or methods will be needed to accomplish the steps. This gives everyone on the team guidelines to follow, and it allows you to assess progress by keeping track of the measurable elements. Using the reading example, the steps would be learning to read one new word a week. If he has not learned a word every week for the first few weeks, don't wait until the end of three months to evaluate why progress isn't being made. Perhaps the goal was too ambitious, maybe a new teaching method is needed, or you may want to implement a reward system to motivate your child.
Step 6
Include your child. This should be done in an age-appropriate manner, but don't hesitate to include your child. Making him part of the process is a great way to stay in touch with his needs, enlist his participation and build his confidence. As you approach the teen years and begin to plan his transition to high school, including him in the process is critical.
Tips and Warnings
- When developing realistic goals, it's helpful if you have all the information that's available about your child, including reports from physicians, psychologists, therapists and teachers.
