Child-led goal setting and evaluation tools for children with a disability: A scoping review

Children with disabilities and delays benefit from being involved in setting and evaluating intervention goals. When goals hold personal value for children, they can feel more motivated to work towards them, which can improve their intervention outcomes. However, in current practice, parents or therapists are most often the primary decision-makers about intervention priorities. It is unclear which practices can support allied health professionals to actively involve children with disabilities and delays in goal setting and evaluation.

This study aimed to summarize the current knowledge about tools and approaches used for child-led goal setting and evaluation, and understand how these are used across the goal setting process. The study methodology was a scoping review, which involved a systematic search of online databases. Fifty relevant articles were identified, which described four unique tools and three approaches. These tools and approaches were identified to be used with children in six distinct phases of the goal setting process: (1) directing children to set goals, (2) eliciting goal topics and priorities, (3) constructing a goal statement, (4) indicating baseline performance, (5) developing an action plan, and (6) evaluating goal progress. The goal phases were organised into a new framework which can guide allied health professionals in child-led goal setting and evaluation, called DECIDE.

The findings of this study suggest that children with disabilities and delays can be actively involved in setting and evaluating their goals across the DECIDE goal phases. However, more research is needed to validate the effectiveness of child-led tools used for goal evaluation. Future research should involve gathering the perspectives of children and caregivers to develop tools, approaches, and strategies that can optimally support diverse children's participation in goal setting. Furthermore, the impact of child-led tools and approaches on child and family outcomes should be investigated.