Somewhere in your papers there is a goals sheet from the first assessment. It is dated eight months ago. Some of it your child has quietly outgrown. Some of it, you suspect, nobody is actively working on anymore. And you honestly cannot say when anyone last looked at it.

Here is a rhythm that keeps that from happening: review your child’s therapy goals on three levels. A quick status check every week, a proper comparison every month, and a formal review with your therapist roughly every few months, or sooner if a goal has clearly been achieved or clearly stalled. Each level takes minutes, and each answers a different question.

This guide walks through what to look at in each review, the signs a goal needs a conversation before the scheduled one, and how to raise it without feeling like you are second guessing your therapist.

Key takeaways

• Three levels: weekly status check (is practice happening), monthly comparison (is anything moving), formal review with the therapist (are these still the right goals).
• Parents review progress; the therapy team revises goals. Your notes are the evidence the conversation runs on.
• Goals that are achieved, stalled for many weeks, or overtaken by life changes deserve a conversation sooner than the calendar says.
• Reviewing daily is as harmful as never reviewing. Skills wobble day to day; judge the month.
  
  
  

The three levels of goal review

Not every review is the same job. Mixing them up is why goal reviews feel either pointless or overwhelming.

Weekly: the status check (5 to 10 minutes, yours)

Once a week, skim your daily notes and mark each active goal with one word: started, improving, consistent, or independent. Add whether the behavior you are watching happened less, the same, or more than last week.

You are not judging your child here. You are checking that the system is alive: practice is happening, observations are being captured, and nothing is drifting. If you are not keeping daily notes yet, start with our guide on [→ how to track your child’s therapy progress]; the weekly check only works if there is something to skim.

Monthly: the comparison (15 minutes, yours)

Once a month, compare this month against last month, goal by goal. Fewer prompts needed? Skill showing up in new places? Behavior trending down? These stage shifts are what progress actually looks like at close range; our guide to [→ what counts as progress in your child’s therapy] unpacks them.

The monthly review is also where you write down what you cannot explain. “Practice happened consistently but requesting has not moved in six weeks” is not a failure note. It is exactly the sentence your therapist needs to hear.

Every few months: the formal review (with your therapy team)

Goals themselves are set and revised by your child’s therapy team, and most services schedule formal reviews at regular intervals, commonly every three to six months depending on the service and your child’s plan [source]. Ask your therapist what the cycle is; it is a completely normal question.

Your job at these reviews is not to arrive with opinions about goal design. It is to arrive with evidence: two or three months of weekly summaries, the wins list, and the things you cannot explain. Parents who bring observations change the conversation from “how do you feel it is going” to “here is what home actually looks like.” Our guide to [→ preparing for your child’s therapy progress review] covers exactly what to bring.

Signs a goal needs a conversation sooner

The calendar is a default, not a rule. Raise a goal with your therapist between reviews when you notice any of these:

• It is done. Your child does the skill independently, in new places, without prompts. Celebrate, then ask what comes next. Leaving mastered goals on the list wastes session time.
• It has been flat for a long time. Consistent practice with no visible movement for six to eight weeks is worth a conversation. Not because someone failed, but because the approach, the step size, or the goal itself might need adjusting.
• Life changed. New school, new sibling, a house move, a health event. Goals set in one season of life do not always fit the next one.
• You do not understand it anymore. If you cannot explain a goal in your own words, you cannot support it at home. That alone justifies a conversation.
  
  None of these require waiting for the scheduled review. A short message or a minute at pick up is enough to start: “Could we look at the requesting goal at our next session? I have some notes.”

How to raise it without awkwardness

Many parents sit on goal questions for months because they do not want to seem difficult. Two reframes help.

First, therapists revise goals all the time. It is not an admission that something went wrong; it is the job. A goal is a best current guess about the next step, and home observations are precisely the data that improves the guess.

Second, you are not asking them to defend the goal. You are sharing what you see. The difference is in the wording:

• “I have been tracking at home, and requesting has not changed in about six weeks even with regular practice. What do you make of that?”
• “She has done this independently at grandma’s house three times now. Is it time to move on?”
• “Can you help me put this goal in everyday words? I want to make sure home practice matches it.”

Every one of these makes the therapist’s work easier, not harder. More conversation starters are in [→ questions to ask your child’s therapist].

Common mistakes with goal reviews

• Reviewing daily. Skills fluctuate with sleep, mood, and molars. Daily judgment produces despair on Tuesday and false hope on Friday. Collect daily, judge monthly.
• Never reviewing. The eight month old goal sheet problem. If nobody looks, mastered goals clog the list and stalled ones drift for a year.
• Treating goals as sacred. A goal is a tool. Tools get adjusted.
• Reviewing from memory. “I think it is a bit better?” helps nobody. The whole point of two minutes of daily notes is that reviews run on evidence instead of vibes. Session by session capture is covered in [→ what to write after each therapy session].
• Comparing to other children. The only fair baseline is your own child, one month ago.
  
  
  
  

FAQ

How often should therapy goals be reviewed? On three levels: a weekly status check by the parent, a monthly comparison against the previous month, and a formal review with the therapy team, commonly every three to six months depending on the service. Ask your therapist what their review cycle is.

Who decides when to change my child’s therapy goals? Your child’s therapy team sets and revises goals, but parent observations are a core input. Sharing what you see at home, especially skills appearing in new places or long plateaus, is often what triggers a useful revision.

What if my child met a goal early? Tell your therapist rather than waiting for the scheduled review. A mastered goal left on the list costs session time that could go to the next step.

What if a goal is not progressing at all? Consistent practice with no movement for six to eight weeks is worth a conversation, not a crisis. The step size, the approach, or the goal itself may need adjusting, and your home notes will make that conversation concrete.

Should I review goals with my child? For many children, celebrating wins together is motivating, while formal goal talk is not. Follow your child’s lead and ask your therapist what is appropriate for their age and profile.

The sheet from eight months ago

Go find it. Read it next to this month’s notes. Some lines will make you smile because they are simply done now. Some will raise questions worth writing down.

Either way, the sheet stops being a relic and becomes what it was always meant to be: a living list, reviewed a little every week, properly every month, and together with your team every season.

Build the notes your reviews will run on

Goal reviews are only as good as the observations behind them. Start with the full system, five minutes a day: [→ How to Track Your Child’s Therapy Progress: A Parent Guide]

Want the ready made pages? The weekly summary, monthly review, and goal sheets in this article are all part of [→ My Child’s Therapy Journey], our parent therapy binder.

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Attunement Family articles are documentation and organization guidance for parents. They are not medical or therapeutic advice and do not replace your child’s therapy team. Always discuss your child’s development with their therapist.