A small repeatable workflow

Record less. Notice more.

The useful record is not a perfect diary. It is a few consistently defined observations that can answer: what changed, where, with how much help, and at what cost to the child?

Open AbilityMosaic Add it to your phone

1. Set up the profile

Start with the child's strengths, interests, communication and regulation supports. Add only information you already know. The developmental bands are planning aids, not tests; it is fine to leave an area unset until a therapist helps.

2. Use Today lightly

Today offers up to three short activities drawn from existing routines. They are suggestions, not assignments. Stop if the child refuses or becomes distressed. Log what happened and how the child was; either one alone gives an incomplete picture.

For a specific routine, open Daily living. It groups dressing, toilet, bathing, teeth, bedtime, eating, safe drinking and nose care in one place. Choose one routine rather than running the whole list.

3. Capture meaningful moments

Words: include signs, AAC and approximations. Mark whether the child initiated.
Skills: record the highest prompt needed. Less help is progress.
Behaviour: record what came before and after; check pain, sleep and illness first.
Sleep and measures: use small repeatable units rather than general impressions.
Keep: save an ordinary short clip periodically for later comparison.

4. Keep goals few

Use three to five active goals across the whole team, not five per discipline. Each needs a baseline, observable response, opportunity definition, support level, setting, review date and rule for changing the plan.

“80% accuracy” is not enough. Ask: 80% of which opportunities, with what prompt, in which setting, observed by whom?

5. Use teaching programmes correctly

Open Skills → Developmental teaching programmes. Each pilot programme gives readiness conditions, a baseline, teaching sequence, distress response, mastery and provenance.

Independent probe: give the natural opportunity and do not prompt.
Teaching attempt: record the highest planned help that was available.
Do not mix these numbers. A child can be learning successfully with support while independent performance is still emerging.

6. Review the trend

Daily

Log only what occurred naturally. A few taps are enough.

Weekly

Look for changes in spontaneity, prompt level, regulation and settings. Do not react to one difficult day.

Every 8–12 weeks

Review goals with the therapist. Continue when the trend improves and child cost is acceptable; adapt when implementation was adequate but nothing moves; pause for distress, regression, pain or a goal that no longer matters.

7. Take the record to appointments

Show the baseline, latest numerator and denominator, prompt trend, people/settings, wellbeing, and what was actually tried. Ask the therapist to agree on the next target and its measurement rule before leaving.

What not to do

Do not average eight domains into one score.
Do not compare the child with another child inside this app.
Do not count compliance achieved through distress as progress.
Do not turn family life into continuous testing.
Do not use a pilot programme as a substitute for specialist assessment.