Sequencing goals are common in IEPs, but do they actually lead to meaningful outcomes? In this episode, I share why I no longer write traditional sequencing goals and what I do instead to support generalization, comprehension, and real-world language use. We’ll look at how isolated sequencing tasks fall short and how embedding sequencing within narrative-based therapy can better support students’ communication skills.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why decontextualized sequencing tasks often don’t generalize
- How narrative-based frameworks support sequencing, memory, and comprehension
- Examples of functional, measurable alternatives to traditional sequencing goals
- Practical ways to scaffold sequencing within real stories and experiences
Listen in to rethink how you target sequencing and walk away with ideas you can apply in therapy right away.
Sequencing goals show up in countless IEPs, but do they actually support meaningful language use in the classroom and beyond? If a student can sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy, what does that really tell us about their ability to communicate, comprehend, or retell real-life events?
Over time, I’ve stopped writing traditional sequencing goals. Not because sequencing isn’t important—but because how we target it matters. Instead of isolated tasks, I embed sequencing within narrative-based therapy to support generalization, comprehension, and functional communication.
Let’s break down why.
Why Traditional Sequencing Goals Often Fall Short
Many sequencing goals look something like this:
Student will sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy.
While these goals are easy to measure, they’re also highly decontextualized. Tasks like ordering picture cards or following unrelated multi-step directions often rely on short-term memory rather than deeper language processing.
The problem? Skills learned in isolation don’t reliably generalize.
A student might successfully sequence pictures in a therapy room—but still struggle to:
- Retell what happened at recess
- Explain steps in a classroom activity
- Understand story structure during reading comprehension
Real-world sequencing is never just sequencing. It requires vocabulary, grammar, attention, working memory, and understanding how events connect over time.
What the Research Tells Us About Sequencing and Language
Research consistently shows that contextualized, meaningful language instruction leads to better outcomes than isolated skill drills.
Narrative-based intervention:
- Supports comprehension and expressive language
- Builds mental schemas for organizing information
- Promotes generalization to academic and real-life contexts
Studies have found that targeting narrative structure improves story retell, language complexity, and comprehension—skills directly tied to functional sequencing (Gillam & Ukrainetz, 2006; Petersen, Gillam, & Gillam, 2008).
When sequencing is taught only as picture ordering, students may demonstrate task-specific success without meaningful language growth.
What I Do Instead: Embed Sequencing in Narrative-Based Therapy
Rather than teaching sequencing as an isolated skill, I target it within narratives—the way it naturally appears in real communication.
This might include:
- Retelling stories from books
- Sharing personal narratives
- Describing familiar routines or classroom events
In this context, sequencing becomes part of a larger language framework that also supports:
- Vocabulary development
- Grammar and sentence structure
- Temporal and causal language (first, then, because)
- Working memory and attention
This approach reflects how students are actually expected to use language in school.
Examples of Functional Sequencing Goals
Instead of a traditional sequencing goal, consider goals like:
- When given a short story, the student will retell the events using appropriate temporal language with minimal support.
- When producing a personal narrative, the student will include a clear beginning, middle, and end using at least three temporal or causal words.
These goals are:
- Functional
- Contextualized
- Measurable
- Aligned with classroom expectations
They also make it much easier to track meaningful progress.
But What If a Student Really Struggles With Sequencing?
This is a common (and valid) concern. Contextualized does not mean unsupported.
We can scaffold by:
- Using very short narratives
- Co-creating quick visuals or pictography
- Modeling language repeatedly
- Gradually increasing complexity over time
Even with significant support, working within a meaningful context provides more value than random picture cards ever could.
Why This Approach Leads to Better Generalization
When sequencing is embedded in narrative-based therapy, we’re not just teaching order—we’re building comprehension.
Students are:
- Organizing information meaningfully
- Strengthening memory and attention
- Practicing skills they’ll use across settings
This leads to better carryover, stronger academic support, and more confidence with real-world communication.
Learn More About Narrative-Based Therapy
If you want to see what this looks like in practice (with concrete examples, goals, and therapy activities), I share more inside my on-demand course at the SLP Summit.
References
Gillam, R. B., & Ukrainetz, T. M. (2006). Language intervention through literature-based units. In T. M. Ukrainetz (Ed.), Literate language intervention: Scaffolding PreK–12 literacy achievement (pp. 59–94). Pro-Ed.
Petersen, D. B., Gillam, S. L., & Gillam, R. B. (2008). Emerging procedures in narrative assessment: The index of narrative complexity. Topics in Language Disorders, 28(2), 115–130.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). (n.d.). Spoken language disorders: Evidence-based intervention.
Ukrainetz, T. A. (2006). Contextualized language intervention: Scaffolding PreK–12 literacy achievement. Pro-Ed.
Transcript
On today's episode, I want to chat about something that's a little controversial, but in a good way, and it's why I don't write sequencing goals, at least not in the way that many of us are used to. I am going to share what I do instead and why I believe that this leads to better generalization and improved outcomes for our students.
First let's chat a little bit about what we usually mean by sequencing goals and why that might be a problem. I've written these goals in the past, but they look like: "Student will sequence for picture cards or Student will follow three step directions. It's a lot with picture cards and following directions, and that kind of sequencing is very decontextualized, stripped down and uses isolated tasks.
And the problem is that these isolated tasks often don't generalize. So a student might be able to order four picture cards or follow three step directions, but what does that matter if they can't apply that into the classroom? The things that really matter are being able to tell stories, retell events, understanding sequences of events in real life. Sequencing in real life rarely exists in a vacuum, like real communication, like telling a story, telling what happened at recess, that involves vocabulary, grammar, memory, attention, story structure, which is way more than isolated ordering of some pictures. And the research supports this too. Targeting sequencing in isolation often taps only short-term memory, and it doesn't build the complex cognitive language skills needed for comprehension and expressive language. So if we're writing a sequencing goal, like: "Student will sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy", and if we're only using those sequencing cards, that builds a narrow skillset that doesn't reflect real world language use and won't generalize outside of the classroom.
Then what does it actually look like? What do I do instead? So what I have found to help, and the research supports this as well, is that I contextualize sequencing within narrative based frameworks. And so we target sequencing goals within narrative based therapy and work with real stories.
Instead of picture cards or decontextualized routines, we use books, story retells, or personal narratives, and that way sequencing becomes part of a bigger picture. We're able to incorporate vocabulary, grammar, story grammar, comprehension, all of these different skills that provide a really meaningful context and are reflective of how students would be using this in the real world.
And then facilitate facilitating that generalization, because again it doesn't matter if they can sequence 10 images with a hundred percent accuracy if this isn't generalizing to the classroom. By using a narrative based approach, we're encouraging students to build a mental schema, and that helps them recall and organize information that frees up their working memory for comprehension and expressive language, and instead of just having to memorize.
By doing this, we're able to address underlying skills like working memory and attention. Sequencing isn't just about ordering events or pictures, it heavily relies on skills like working memory and attention. by targeting these skills in context rather than an isolated ordering of pictures, we're supporting comprehension, narrative retell, expressive language, following directions, all of those different types of skills, and planning for generalization from the start. We're building towards comprehension versus a very isolated skill.
And by embedding sequencing in this narrative context, we're giving students repeated opportunities to target additional skills like using temporal vocabulary, first, next, then last. They get to use causal language. They get to incorporate story grammar, and those are all really important for real world communication.
So what does this actually look like? Instead of writing a goal of "Student will sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy", we might write goals about when given a short story, the Student will retell the story with temporal language. Or when asked to produce a personal narrative, the student will produce a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle, end structure and at least three temporal or causal words. Those are two examples of how this might come together. In the show notes, I'll give the full example of the goal . What this looks like in therapy is that we use real stories from books, familiar routines, personal experiences, and we use those to build vocabulary model, temporal and causal language, support working memory, and then gradually fade those scaffolds.
Some common things that SLPs might say are, I need a goal that's easy to measure. And these are perfectly measurable goals. Like the examples that I gave, you can develop a probe to easily measure progress towards that.
Another common thought that I've heard is my student really struggles with sequencing.
That is also valid. We can provide scaffolding and support in these contextualized activities. Maybe we can just use a really short personal narrative, but that is a lot more meaningful than random picture cards. We can create, we can use pictography and make quick pictures, and then gradually increase the complexity, but at least we're starting with a meaningful context.
So why this matters in terms of the big picture, we're helping students gain skills that they'll actually use, whether that's producing narratives, retelling narratives, comprehension, following multi-step directions. Targeting sequencing in this way will lead to really meaningful gains of some functional skills, and by teaching in this way, we're also helping students build cognitive skills like memory and attention, and we're more likely to see carryover and generalization when we're using this type of approach.
And if you're curious what this looks like in context with some concrete examples, I'd love to see you at the SLP Summit. My course is on demand. I'll include a link in the show notes. It'll be available until January 31st. I would love to see you there, and we are including some cool freebies as well.
Definitely check that out if you're wanting to learn more about what this could look like. That's a wrap for today. Thanks for hanging out and we'll see you next time.
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