Your child’s NDIS Plan is based on the goals your child wants to achieve in the next 12 months and into the future.

Setting goals is an important part of your child’s NDIS Plan. It’s worth spending some time thinking about what is most important for your child and family and how the NDIS can best support you.

At your NDIS planning meeting, you will be asked about your child’s short and long-term goals. These will depend on your child’s abilities, development, age and interests. Aim to have two or three short-term and long-term goals ready for your planning meeting.

Developing goals

The goals you develop can relate to your child’s physical, social or emotional development as well as their mental health and well-being. You can ask your child’s therapists and other people who know and support your child to help identify meaningful goals and the supports needed to achieve them.

Short-term goals

Short-term goals can usually be achieved within 12 months.

Examples of short-term goals might include:

• I want to develop my coping skills to manage my sensory needs and high levels of anxiety
• I want to have opportunities to improve my ability to speak clearly and be understood
• I want to be able to regulate my emotions so that I can make friends and play with my siblings
• I want to improve my muscle strength and co-ordination so that I can play sport at school and on the weekend
• I want to learn how to organise my belongings so that I can find them easily and stay calm
• I want to increase my hand strength and control so that I can do up buttons, zips and shoelaces and be more independent when I get dressed
• I want to be able to write better so that others can read and understand it
• I want to increase my confidence to try new things so that I can go to new places and enjoy new activities without becoming overwhelmed
• I want to improve my strength and co-ordination to walk independently so that I can keep up with my peers
• I want to be more independent in my eating and have better hand control when I use cutlery

Long-term goals

Long-term goals may take years to achieve but you can break them down into smaller steps and short-term goals.

Examples of medium to long-term goals might include:

• I want to increase my personal skills and capacity at home and in the community so that I can be more independent
• I want to improve my daily living skills to live as safely and independently as possible in a house near my parents, now and into the future
• I want opportunities to fully participate in the community like my peers, independent of my parents
• I want to develop my social and communication skills to make friends and to participate in community activities, including volunteering or working in the near future
• I want to maintain and improve my physical health and well-being, with increased physical exercise and increased ability to understand and manage my emotions and behaviour

Once you’ve chosen some short and long-term goals, you will need to get good evidence for the NDIS supports your child will need to achieve them.

Related topics

Getting good evidence for the NDIS
Behaviour support in your child’s NDIS Plan