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Understanding Your Child's Treatment Plan Parent guide Understanding Your Child's Treatment Plan =========================================== Learn how to read your child's ABA treatment plan: goals, baselines, mastery criteria, and what the lines on a progress graph actually mean. 6 min read Updated September 30, 2026 For Parent Print / Save as PDF Reading a treatment plan, part by part ---------------------------------------- Use it when a new or updated plan arrives. Part What it tells you Check for yourself 1. ### Goals What it tells you - A specific skill your child is working toward - What counts, and how the team will know it is learned Check for yourself - Each goal matters to our family - Any behavior goal is paired with a skill to learn instead 2. ### Baseline What it tells you - Where your child is before teaching begins - The starting point new data is compared to Check for yourself - I know where my child started 3. ### Prompts What it tells you - Help that makes it easier for your child to succeed - Faded over time so your child can do it alone Check for yourself - I know how help will be faded 4. ### Mastery What it tells you - The rule for when a goal is met, like 80% across 3 sessions - Checks the skill works in new places and with new people Check for yourself - I know what “mastered” means for each goal 5. ### Progress graph What it tells you - Time runs along the bottom; what is measured runs up the side - A vertical line marks a phase change Check for yourself - I ask what happened at each phase change **It is a shared plan.** If any part is unclear, ask your BCBA to walk through it with you. That is part of their job. Your child’s treatment plan is one of the most important documents in ABA. It can also be one of the hardest to read. This guide walks through the common parts of a plan and shows you how to read a progress graph, so you can take part in conversations about your child’s progress. What a treatment plan is for ---------------------------- A treatment plan is a written roadmap. It explains: - What your child is working on - Why each goal matters - How the team will teach each skill - How the team will know when a goal is met - How you will be involved Plans are usually updated on a regular schedule, often every few months. They can also change sooner if something is not working. Goals ----- A **goal** is a skill your child is working toward. Good goals are specific. Instead of “improve communication,” a clear goal might say: > “When \[child\] wants an item, they will ask for it using words, a picture, or their device, without help, in 8 out of 10 chances across 3 sessions in a row.” That sentence tells you what the skill is, what counts, and how the team will know it has been learned. You may see two kinds of goals: - **Skill-building goals:** new things to learn, like asking for help, washing hands, or taking turns. - **Behavior-reduction goals:** behaviors that are unsafe or get in the way, like hitting or running into the street. These goals should always be paired with a skill-building goal that teaches a better way to meet the same need. Operational definitions ----------------------- You may see a section that describes behaviors in very exact terms. This is called an **operational definition**. It is a clear description of what a behavior looks like, so everyone on the team counts it the same way. For example, “tantrum” can mean different things to different people. An operational definition might say: “Crying, yelling, or dropping to the floor for 10 seconds or more.” This helps make the data fair and accurate. Baseline -------- A **baseline** is a snapshot of where your child is before teaching begins. It answers questions like: - How often does this behavior happen right now? - Can my child do this skill already, and with how much help? Baseline gives the team a starting point. Later, they compare new data to baseline to see whether things are changing. Prompts and prompt fading ------------------------- A **prompt** is help that makes it easier for your child to succeed. Prompts can include: - Pointing or gesturing - Showing how to do it (modeling) - Saying part of the answer - Gently guiding your child’s hands (only with your child’s comfort and the plan’s approval) **Prompt fading** means slowly giving less help over time, so your child can do the skill on their own. Your plan may describe the order of prompts the team will use. Mastery criteria ---------------- **Mastery criteria** are the rules that tell the team when a goal is met. They are usually written as a number or percent over a set amount of time. For example: - “80% correct across 3 sessions in a row” - “Without prompts, on 2 different days, with 2 different people” Many plans also check that a skill **generalizes**, which means your child can use it in different places, with different people, and with different materials. A skill learned only at the clinic table is not fully learned yet. Maintenance ----------- After a skill is mastered, the team may check it now and then to make sure your child still remembers it. This is called **maintenance**. It is normal for a mastered skill to show up in the plan again later as a quick check. How to read a progress graph ---------------------------- Many providers share graphs to show progress. They can look confusing at first, but most follow the same pattern. **The parts of a graph:** - **The line along the bottom (horizontal axis):** time. Each point is usually a session, day, or week. - **The line up the side (vertical axis):** what is being measured. This could be percent correct, number of times a behavior happened, or how many minutes it lasted. - **Dots connected by a line:** your child’s data over time. - **A vertical line or dashed line across the graph:** a **phase change**. This marks a point where something changed, like a new teaching strategy, a new goal step, or the end of baseline. - **Small notes or markers:** some graphs mark events like an illness, a new medication, a move, a school break, or a new therapist. These help explain changes in the data. **What to look for:** - **Direction (trend):** Is the line generally going up, going down, or staying flat? For a skill, up is usually good. For a behavior you want to reduce, down is usually good. - **Level:** Where are most of the dots sitting? Compare that to baseline. - **Bounce (variability):** Do the dots jump around a lot, or stay close together? A lot of bounce can mean something outside of sessions is affecting your child, such as sleep, illness, or schedule changes. **Good questions to ask about a graph:** - What does each dot stand for? - What happened at this phase change line? - Why did the data jump here? - What will you change if this line stays flat? Progress is rarely a straight line. Ups and downs are normal. What matters is the overall pattern and whether the team is responding to it. Your part in the plan --------------------- You are an important member of the team. You can: - Help choose goals that matter to your family - Share whether a skill is showing up at home - Tell the team about changes in your child’s life - Ask for any part of the plan to be explained again A quick review checklist ------------------------ Use this when you sit down to review a new or updated plan. - I understand what each goal means - Each goal matters to my child and our family - Any behavior-reduction goal is paired with a skill my child will learn instead - I know how the team will measure progress - I know what “mastered” means for each goal - I know how I will be involved - I know when the plan will be reviewed next - I have asked every question I have The bottom line --------------- A treatment plan is not meant to be a secret document for professionals only. It is a shared plan for your child. If any part of it is unclear, ask your BCBA to walk through it with you. That is part of their job. ![StreamABA](https://streamaba.com/build/assets/logo-light-CHa2KuSW.svg) Free from StreamABA · https://streamaba.com/resources/parent-guides/understanding-your-childs-treatment-plan More parent guides --------------------- [ Browse all free resources ](https://streamaba.com/resources) - [ Parent guide ### Parent Training in ABA: What to Expect and Why It Matters A plain-language look at ABA parent training: what happens in sessions, why your participation matters, and how to make it work for your family. Parent 5 min read ](https://streamaba.com/resources/parent-guides/parent-training-what-to-expect) - [ Parent guide ### Preparing for Your Child's Initial ABA Assessment What to bring, what you will be asked, and how to help your child feel comfortable during their first ABA assessment, with a printable checklist. 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