What are annual goals and short-term objectives?
Every child with an IEP has goals and objectives for the year. Goals and objectives are written statements in the IEP. They describe what the child will learn or focus on in the upcoming year in school. Goals look at big steps. They state what the child is expected to learn during the year. For example, take Suzie. Shes six and only knows the names of a few objects. An annual goal for Suzie could be, Suzie will correctly name 60 new objects. Objectives (or in other cases, benchmarks) are smaller steps. They break the annual goal down into smaller pieces. For example, Suzie has the goal of naming 60 new objects. This goal may be broken down into several objectives such as: 1. By December 31, Suzie will name 20 new objects in her environment. 2. By March 15, Suzie will name 20 additional new objects in her environment. 3. By June 15, Suzie will name 20 additional objects in her environment. When Suzie meets all of these objectives, she also reaches her annual goal. Suzies IEP will have g
