Goal Setting for Children with Autism: Building Confidence and Independence

Using New Year’s Resolutions to Build Confidence

Setting New Year’s resolutions can be a fun and meaningful way to include children in goal setting and support independence in their everyday lives. Whether a child wants to make their bed each morning, pack their own backpack, or work toward managing parts of their daily routine more independently, resolutions can encourage self-reflection and personal growth. For children with autism, setting goals can also be a way to create structure and opportunities to build confidence when goals are set thoughtfully and supported consistently.

Goal Setting

Knowing what is realistic can be challenging for many children. Goals that are too big or unclear may feel overwhelming. Helping your child set realistic and achievable goals is the first step in ensuring they feel successful.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when guiding goal setting:

Help make goals clear, specific and realistic
Identify how you will help your child measure success
Ensure goals are age-appropriate and aligned with the child’s abilities
Break goals down into smaller daily or weekly tasks
Provide supports as needed such as: visuals, checklists, or simple routine schedules

For example, if a child wants to be more helpful at home, start by choosing a clear and realistic goal such as helping with one household chore each week. Success might be measured by completing the task with reminders and gradually working toward more independence. Use a checklist to track when the child is able to complete the task independently. Make sure the task is age appropriate and matched to the child’s abilities, such as taking out the trash every Monday or helping mop the floors on Sundays. Break the goal into smaller steps like gathering supplies, completing the task, and putting items away. Providing supports such as a simple checklist or visual schedule can help the child understand expectations and feel confident. These smaller, structured steps make goals feel more manageable and easier to maintain over time.

Make it Meaningful

Applied Behavior Analysis is built on the idea that meaningful skills are best learned through small, achievable steps that are practiced consistently over time. When goals are clear, relevant, and supported by everyday routines, children are more likely to feel successful and motivated to keep trying. This approach aligns naturally with New Year’s resolutions, as it emphasizes progress and celebrates effort along the way. By breaking goals into manageable parts and reinforcing success, families can help children build confidence and independence in ways that feel encouraging and attainable.

Staying Consistent

Even for adults, staying consistent with New Year’s resolutions can be tough. Consistency is especially important for building routines and reducing anxiety. Planning for supports or embedding reminders around the house can make a big difference.

Helpful strategies include:

Modeling how to complete the task before expecting independence

Using calendars, visual schedules, timers, or written lists

Keeping routines predictable and consistent

Providing encouragement, praise, or small rewards for effort and follow-through

By staying consistent and providing support, children are more likely to feel successful and build lasting independence.

Reinforcing Success

Reinforcement is a key part of helping children stick with their resolutions. When a child receives positive feedback, praise, or small rewards for completing a task, it strengthens the likelihood that they will continue the behavior in the future. Reinforcement can be as simple as verbal encouragement, a high-five, a sticker, or a brief preferred activity. The important part is that it is immediate, consistent, and meaningful to the child. By celebrating even small steps of progress, children build confidence, feel motivated, and learn that effort leads to positive results.

New Year’s resolutions do not have to be perfect or long-term to be meaningful. The goal is growth and independence. By setting realistic goals, breaking them into manageable steps, and providing consistent support and encouragement, families can turn resolutions into positive learning experiences. Most importantly, these moments create opportunities for building lifelong skills together.

Join the Spark Family

Little Sparks – Our early intervention preschool and kinder program designed to build foundational skills through play-based ABA therapy.

Speech Therapy – Helping children develop communication skills with personalized, engaging speech and language support.

Summer Camp – A fun, inclusive program where kids build social skills and confidence through structured activities and play.

Social Skills & Group – Small-group ABA sessions that teach children how to engage, communicate, and navigate social situations.

Parent Training – Equipping parents with effective ABA strategies to support each child’s growth at home and beyond.

At Spark, we believe that ABA therapy should be engaging, natural, and, most importantly… fun! Our goal is to empower children, support families, and build confidence in every child we work with.

Ready to learn more? Reach out today!