How to Balance Child-Led Therapy and Required Data Collection (Without Sacrificing Connection)
Ever feel like you’re stuck choosing between following the child’s lead or getting the data your admin wants?
You’re not alone! But here’s the good news: You don’t actually have to pick one.
There’s a way to blend child-led, neuroaffirming therapy with the data collection and documentation your setting requires, without interrupting play, creating unnecessary pressure, or compromising your values.
Let’s talk about how to make that happen.
Step 1: Set Flexible, Neuroaffirming Goals
The first step is making sure your goals actually fit inside child-led sessions.
If your goals are written around compliance-based trials or correct responses, you’ll constantly feel like your data isn’t matching what’s happening in your sessions. That’s because child-led therapy doesn’t work like a drill session, and it shouldn’t.
Instead, write goals that reflect what real, natural communication looks like in play and everyday routines.
Some examples:
How often a child initiates an interaction
When and how they use echolalia to communicate
How they use different communication functions
These kinds of goals honor the child’s natural communication process, which means they fit better into child-led sessions and the data you collect actually makes sense. I personally LOVE to use The Neurodiversity Affirming Goal Bank by Amy Zembriski, SLP because it has tons of amazing, affirming goals for GLPs and beyond, saving me precious time and energy! P.S. This is an affiliate link, so I earn a commission if you decide to purchase this resource. Use code NICOLE at checkout for an extra discount!
Step 2: Know Exactly What You’re Measuring
Once you have goals that work with the child’s communication style, the next step is knowing exactly how you’ll measure progress (and spoiler: it doesn’t have to be all about numbers).
That’s why I love using rubric-style goals.
With a rubric, you’re not just counting how often something happens, you’re tracking how independently it happens, how much support is needed, and data can be collected across a variety of contexts.
This gives you a much richer, more accurate picture of progress, and it fits beautifully into child-led sessions because you’re not constantly interrupting to tally up data.
I’ll be sharing a full post soon breaking down exactly how I create and use rubrics for child-led speech therapy, so keep an eye out for that.
Step 3: Use Short Observation Blocks For Data Collection
Here’s the part that keeps everything balanced: You do not need to track every single moment.
Instead, I set aside a short observation block during the session, maybe 5-10 minutes, where I’m intentionally watching for the communication skills I’m tracking.
During the rest of the session? I’m fully following the child’s lead, joining their play, and focusing on co-regulation, connection, and modeling language naturally.
This gives me plenty of data to show authentic progress, and the child gets the relaxed, safe, and responsive environment they need to actually communicate.
Why This Approach Works
When you collect data this way, in small, natural observation blocks, you end up with information that’s:
More accurate
More respectful of the child’s process
Easier to use when advocating for child-led, neuroaffirming approaches with IEP teams or administrators
This isn’t about skipping data collection. It’s about shifting how we do it, so the data we collect actually reflects the child’s strengths and growth.
So, What Does Data Look Like?
I’m going to be sharing another post very soon that will share my process for creating rubric-based goals and data collection sheets… I don’t think I can ever go back to a regular goal, it’s RUBRICS FOREVER over here :)
Check back soon for that post!
