Beyond Lines and Circles: Supporting Meaningful, Functional Goals in Early Education and Beyond

As school-based occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs), we recognize the importance of pre-writing for future academic success. Over the years, academic rigor and writing expectations for children as young as preschool and kindergarten have increased.

While we want to equip young students with strong pre-writing skills, we must ensure our goals are meaningful, functional, and individualized. 

Supporting Pre-Writing Students as School-Based Occupational Therapy Practitioners

We’re often called upon by our team to evaluate a student's fine motor skills and provide support if needed. This includes looking at pre-writing skills. When a student isn’t able to form pre-writing strokes, we may recommend intervention. 

Making appropriate recommendations can be difficult, especially when evaluating students before they start school.  Many children we evaluate may have had limited exposure to classroom fine motor tools, including writing utensils.

When recommending pre-writing goals, it’s important to consider not just fine motor skills, but also exposure, opportunity, motivation, and self-regulation.

A Common Goal…That I Don’t Recommend 

“Given a visual model, [student] will copy a vertical line, horizontal line, and a circle in 3 out of 4 trials”... You’ve likely seen goals like this before. While they may be appropriate in some cases, I believe we can do better. 

As school-based OTPs, we must be intentional with how we promote and support writing development. 

Consider what the child is currently doing.  For example, are they:
– Avoiding writing utensils?
– Exploring crayons, markers, or paintbrushes?
– Showing visual interest in drawing or art activities? 

Yes, we want our students to be able to make marks like vertical lines and circles, but writing a goal like the one above is likely not the best way to ensure meaningful participation. 

Neurodiversity Affirming & Strengths-Based Practices

It is vital that we stand firm in neurodiversity affirming and strengths-based approaches. Oftentimes in the school setting a lot of goal work is (intentionally or unintentionally) directed towards compliance and masking. Too often, goals are pulled from a generic goal bank or written for ease of data collection rather than carefully crafted to promote meaningful academic participation. 

Our unique lens equips us as OTPs to see how our students most successfully engage in their educational settings. We can lean into the PEO model to explore how personal factors, the environment, and the task itself impact participation. 

We must avoid the urge to assume a one-size-fits-all developmental path when considering pre-writing goals. The students we work with have unique ways of participating, communicating, and learning.  Goals should foster expression and participation, leveraging strengths and preferences for engagement.

Collaborative Goals 

Collaborative goals are considered best practice for school-based therapy. Through a collaborative approach, the team identifies functional routines with educational relevance and works together to ensure that the student is supported by appropriate team members to make progress. 

Collaborative goals deserve deeper exploration – stay tuned for a future blog post on this!  For now though, let’s consider what collaborative goals may look like in regard to writing development in early pre-school and school years. 

If a student isn’t showing interest in using crayons or markers, a more appropriate goal may focus on exploring art tools or making meaningful marks rather than simply copying pre-writing strokes. Consider incorporating multi-sensory formats in writing exploration such as drawing in sand, with finger paints, using a sponge, etc. 

Collaboration clarifies daily expectations for the student. When standalone OT goals are written without collaboration, the goal may not fit with the curriculum expectations, and the carryover of recommendations may suffer. 

Fostering confidence and intrinsic motivation enhances engagement and ensures that the goal truly supports a meaningful school experience. 

The Bottom Line

In the school setting an educational model is key! We are one of many individuals on the team. 

While our direct work with a student is important, carryover into their daily routine is vital. Collaborative goals that support meaningful engagement in daily classroom activities lead to better student outcomes.

When supporting pre-writing skills, we may operate in different roles, such as: 

 – In RtI or MTSS frameworks, you may provide training and school-wide intervention strategies.

– As related service providers, service is provided if necessary for the student to benefit from their special education programming. 

Remember, if operating as a related service provider (which we most often do), we provide service to assist students in benefiting from their special education programming.

Avoid writing goals just to check off milestone skills – focus on fostering meaningful engagement and participation! 

Written by: Jennifer Huff, OTR, MOT