Third-Grade IEP Goals for Child With CAPD

An Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is the basis for teaching and supporting children with disabilities. It is a legal document that is tailored to the needs of a specific child. Third graders with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) have difficulty interpreting and processing spoken information. They may have normal hearing, but are unable to understand sounds in language.

Children with CAPD may exhibit behavior issues and overall poor academic performance as a result of being unable to appropriately process auditory information. This can affect all academic subjects, but comprehension and language arts skills suffer most. Students often have difficulty focusing their attention for long periods. When given a set of directions with multiple steps, these students may not remember all of the commands that were given to complete a task, but may only be seen as a poor listener. Children with CAPD generally need more time to process and organize spoken information.

IEP goals for a third-grade student with CAPD should focus around building language and comprehension skills. The child needs to continue learning new vocabulary, how to correctly pronounce new words and how to appropriately identify the terms in context. Goals should be written that address following directions for a variety of tasks in the classroom. Teachers can begin working on this goal by giving the student direct support and gradually fading out so the child has the opportunity to develop independence in the classroom. Other academic skills to develop IEP goals for include understanding “Wh” questions (who, what, when, where, why), knowing when to ask for clarification and identifying the main idea and details of literature.

A child with CAPD may benefit from using a personal assistive listening device. This device amplifies the teacher’s voice through a microphone and transmits the speech into a hearing aid worn by the child. The student may benefit by having a simple IEP goal that addresses how to correctly care for the amplifier, how to operate the device and taking initiative to use the machine for their own benefit. Goals for developing listening strategies should be written into the IEP. The child can work on building listening skills when there are different types of noises in the background. Third graders with CAPD can greatly benefit from setting goals to help visually organize information. Teachers should support the child in keeping a planner up-to-date with assignments and notes to help organize daily information. Set up a visual schedule to support the child in preparing for classroom activities. Teachers can also write a goal in which the student will use a graphic organizer to make sense of teaching material.

A speech and language therapist frequently works with students with CAPD. The therapist may write IEP goals that focus on building memory skills that will support improved listening comprehension. Goals should be written that measure and build how the child interprets statements that are spoken to them (receptive language) as well as how the child verbally responds to the statements (expressive language). Practical and age-appropriate problem solving skills must be addressed in the IEP. Students should also work on being able to tell the difference between similar-sounding words.