Parents sometimes ask me, early on, what progress will look like. It is a fair question, and I try to answer it honestly, which usually means telling them it will not look like the progress charts they may have seen elsewhere.
In general coaching, progress often has visible markers. More weight lifted, a faster time, a body that moves with more range. In coaching neurodivergent children, progress is frequently smaller and less visible to someone looking for a specific milestone, and I think it is just as real.
A child engaging with a movement instead of resisting it is progress. That might not look dramatic from the outside. It might just mean a child who used to turn away from an activity now stands near it, or picks up the equipment, or watches another child do it without needing to leave the room. None of that fits neatly into a chart, but each one is a real, specific shift.
A child waiting for their next session is progress. I have had parents tell me their child asks when the next session is, or gets visibly excited when it is time to go. That is not a technical skill gained, but it tells me something real is happening, that the child feels safe enough in this context to look forward to it.
Educators noticing changes outside of training is another marker I pay attention to, more than any internal measure I could take myself. If a teacher mentions unprompted that a child seems more settled, or is trying something new in class, that tells me the work is generalizing beyond our sessions, which matters more than anything that happens only within them.
I want to be direct about something: I am not softening this into generic language about inclusion, and I am not measuring these children against what progress looks like for a neurotypical adult client. Those are different things, and treating them as the same would flatten what is actually happening for this specific child, in this specific body, with this specific set of needs.
I also do not want to overstate any of this. Progress is not linear, and a good week does not guarantee the next one looks the same. Some of what I am describing here comes from specific children I have worked with, not a guarantee about what every child will experience. What I can say is that I try to notice progress on the terms that child is actually showing it, rather than importing a scorecard built for someone else's body and needs.