Writing Measurable AAC Goals

We’ve all heard of SMART goals. We’ve got these goals nailed down to help us create therapy targets that are straightforward and make data collection a breeze. Take articulation for example, you can hear errors and calculate percentage accuracy- boom, you’re done. But, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) can feel different and more difficult to make goals measurable.

Goals like “will improve communication” sound meaningful and can feel appropriate. However, the problem is that they can create confusion when it is time to take data, report progress, or defend services. Subjective goals make objective measurement difficult, and that can put individualized education program (IEP) compliance or insurance reimbursement at risk.

AAC adds complexity to goals because you must consider multi modal communication, motor differences, and multiple areas of competency (linguistic, operational, social, and strategic). On top of that, goals may be written differently depending on your district, state, or clinical setting. Regardless of the formatting requirements, one “rule” remains constant: goals must be measurable. This means any other speech-language pathologist (SLP) can pick up this goal, run a session, collect solid data, and progress is clearly measured or defined. Ideally, other team members should also be able to support data collection with a clear system in place. For example, based on the goals you’ve created, you should be able to create data collection sheet that paraeducators can use to help collect data in the school environment.

To make creating measurable AAC goals easier, it can help if we reframe what AAC therapy actually is.  

AAC therapy is language therapy delivered through a different modality.  

The therapy is about communication, not device performance. The goal is communication independence, not how many buttons a student can press.  

Instead of writing “will make two to three selections,” we can consider what really matters: the communication function, context, partner, and the level of support.

When these are prioritized, our goals become clearer and more meaningful. Strong AAC goals break down communication into observable components: 

• Who (the user)  
• Do what  
• Given what conditions 
• With what level of support 
• How often / what criteria 
• Across what setting and/or partners 

Let’s break down these observable components a bit:  

Who: 

That’s easy–Who you are making the goal for.  Most often a student, client, patient, or user.  

Do What:  

Observable communication behaviors might include requesting, labeling, commenting, asking, protesting, rejecting, or initiating. The behavior may be a variety of communication functions as well.  

Given what Conditions:  

Conditions should also be clearly defined. For example:  

• During structured therapy activities,
• During classroom routines,
• Unstructured play, with (un)familiar partner
• When device is available and positioned (which should really always be included!)

With What level of Support:  

Defining the level of support is equally important. Using the prompting hierarchy can help keep consistency across goals:  Independent, indirect verbal cue , verbal ,  gestural , and model.  

(It is best to avoid physical prompting, such as hand-over-hand assistance, as discussed here: Should we still be using hand-over-hand assistance for AAC users?) 

When a student is learning a new skill, the level of support may look different. We can also write in supports to our goals like:  

• “When provided aided language stimulation…” 
• “Given natural communication opportunities… ” 

When you are creating a goal targeting independence, the goal can be structured a bit different with independence in the goal rather than a support, e.g., “Independently during classroom routines…”  

How often or What criteria: 

Data collection should also feel easy and realistic, especially in school settings when educators are busy! The how often or specific criteria is what makes the goal objectively measurable. Consider writing in parameters like:  

• Percentage of opportunities 
• Probe data versus daily data 
• Frequency with a time period (e.g., initiate 3x during unstructured peer play)  
• Event-based data (e.g., repairs communication during observed breakdowns)  

Across Settings or Partners:  

We want to write goals that plan for generalization. We can do this by building goals that plan for the demonstration of a skill across settings or communication partners. Examples could include:  

• Across three different communication partners
• Across two school environments
• Across three consecutive sessions

Writing goals with a simple formula can help. This general formula:  
User + will (what communication behavior) + given (conditions) + with (level of support) in X opportunities across Y sessions/partners/settings.

Other considerations:  

If you include growth language in your goal, make sure to include baseline data and the end goal. For example, “…will increase independent communication initiations from one to five per 30-minute observation period.”

Ensure you are embedding or considering both opportunities and wait time. Consider how many opportunities the student is receiving. We want to create ample amount of communication opportunities for users to demonstrate their goals.  If you need to, ensure there are these opportunities by writing them into your goal. For example, “When provided at least 5 communication opportunities during a classroom routine, the user will…” Similarly, we can also write wait time into a goal to help ensure communication partners are providing users with enough time to process, plan, and respond to an opportunity. For example, you could write “When provided with 5 or more seconds of wait time, user will…”  Including both opportunities and wait time in your goals ensure they are written in a way that is affirming to individual learning differences.  

We’ve discussed that AAC goals are really language goals, and this covers the linguistic competency component. But, that’s missing a piece of the puzzle. Eventually, it can be appropriate to create AAC goals that reflect other areas of communicative competence: operational, strategic, and social. For example, operational competency can be clearing the message bar window, adjusting the volume, carrying the device, and charging the device. Of course, model these practices, but you can also consider creating measurable goals for these skills too!  

Overall, AAC goals should:  

• Support independence  
• Promote connection over any compliance 
• Reflect real world communication (expand beyond requests) 
• Center around autonomy 

Struggling with goal ideas? Check out https://support.ablenetinc.com/aac-education-and-resources/ablenet-goal-bank/ for some ideas to help get you started!