5 Tips for Writing Articulation Goals for Older Students in Speech Therapy
Articulation goals for older students can be a challenging task to dive into, and goals need to be personal and hopefully achievable for each student. Here are five tips to help you write articulation goals for the older students you see in speech therapy.
Articulation Goal Tip #1
Forgo the word level.
While obviously not true for ALL older kids working on speech sounds, in my experience, most of the students that are still with me through middle school can produce their sound at the word level but are mainly struggling with carryover – whether that’s to sentences or conversational speech. So, unless your student still literally can’t produce the sound at the word level, pass on over that and work on meaningful phrases and sentences, at a minimum.
Articulation Goal Tip #2
Ask the student what’s important for them.
When choosing the context for your goal-writing, ask the student when and where they’d like to improve their production and work this into the goal. For some, this might be reading aloud in class, and for others, this might be while giving a speech on the debate/forensics team. For a speech, you may even consider part of the goal to be able to self-identify areas of difficulty in addition to the actual production of sounds. In my experience, reading aloud in class is a pretty consistent area of anxiety for many of my older artic students; however, not all schools still have students reading out loud in class.
Articulation Goal Tip #3 Directly target self-monitoring.
At this point in the game, it’s not enough for them to be excellent in the speech room under your watchful eye. For them to have success with their articulation, they simply HAVE to be able to self-monitor. And the great news is that by the time they’re in upper-elementary or middle school, they are better able to do this. Don’t be afraid to work this into your goal writing or even as a short-term objective. I’ve written goals for “accurately highlighting sounds present in a written passage” and for “accurately identifying sounds produced in error while reading.” For the latter, I simply have the student put a dot with a marker on a word they felt could have been improved. It’s a pretty quick and easy way to mark it while still reading without disrupting the flow.
Articulation Goal Tip #4 Harness the power of distraction.
Okay, this may be more about targeting goals, but it’s still worth saying. Especially as students get older, they get really good at “turning on” their great speech in your room. Have you ever had a student produce perfect Rs and then turn around and ask, “How weh those ahs Mrs. Bow-uhs?” I certainly have—target sounds (and write goals) with a more real-life-like environment in mind. Playing games, using brain teasers (here are some of my favorites), or doing any task where the production of speech sounds isn’t the ONLY focus are all great ideas. Then, use this time to empower them to self-monitor. You can work these into your goals either in the accommodations OR by adding language to the goals themselves. One example might be, “During unstructured, non-drill based activities, the student will….”
Articulation Goal Tip #5
Focus on high-frequency or curriculum words.
While I never take it lightly that I pull any student from class to work with me, I feel more responsible as the students get older to optimize our time together. They’re missing more and more essential academic time, and I feel the pressure to make sure their time with me is well-spent. Consider writing your goals (or, at a minimum, choosing your targets) with curricular words in mind., Or, at a minimum, be sure to use high-frequency or Tier II vocabulary words. And, don’t be afraid to take a second to define them or talk about them. This way, your student is practicing their speech and getting some extra time with concepts they may also be covering in ELA or other classes.
