Find a guide and make it yours

A guide is a plan someone has already thought through for you: a set of goals, broken into small steps, for a situation lots of families go through. That might be a new diagnosis, getting ready for an IEP meeting, or building everyday independence. Adding a guide gives you your own copy of it, so you start with a path instead of a blank page. Some guides also come with files, and you get your own copy of each.

Adding a guide is free, and the copy is private to you. Changing it never changes the original, and nobody else sees your edits.

1. Browse the guides

Open Guides from the sidebar (on a phone, under More), or from Explore at the bottom of your dashboard. The page opens with Start with a proven path.

Search or browse, whichever is easier today. Type in Search guides..., or tap one of the Popular topics under the search box. The row of pills filters by area: Life Transitions, Neurodivergent Support, Education, Career, Independent Living, and more. Featured Paths are a good place to start if you are not sure.

Saved keeps any guide you bookmark, so you can come back to it without searching again.

Guides and Routines are different tabs. A guide is a plan with a beginning and an end. A routine repeats, such as a daily homework session. This guide covers plans; a routine is added the same way, from the Routines tab. Keep a routine going covers what happens next, and the routine steps some guides include.

2. Read the guide first

Open any guide to see the whole thing before you commit to anything. The top shows where it comes from, who it is for, a short description, and its size, for example 4 goals · 8 steps · ~120 days. Under Your Roadmap are the goals in the order the guide suggests.

Where a guide comes from. From Specthrive means the Specthrive team put it together. A guide a professional wrote names them instead. If they work with you, it reads From and their first name, and it adds their role, such as your coach, only once Specthrive has confirmed it. A professional can also give you a guide someone else wrote. Then it shows both: who wrote it, such as "Written by Jordan Lee, coach", and who gave it to you, such as "Shared by Priya, your therapist". If they changed it for you first, it says so in one line, such as "Adapted by Priya, your therapist, from Jordan Lee's guide". How professionals share guides is in Share a guide with other professionals.

The roadmap is a preview. The full step-by-step detail appears in your own copy once you add it.

Some guides come with files. The guide page lists them under a heading such as "Comes with 2 files", each with its name, type and size, and whether it's for the whole guide or goes with a goal. You can't open them from here. "You get your own copy of each file when you start this guide."

3. Choose the goal to start with

Choose Add to My Plans. A short window asks one thing: Which goal do you want to start with?

The first goal is marked suggested first, and each goal shows how many steps it has. Pick whichever feels most pressing. You get every goal in the guide either way: the one you pick starts, and the rest wait in Up next until you want them.

A line under the goals shows your focus spots, for example "This uses 1 of your 3 free focus spots." You can work on up to three goals at once. Anything more waits in Up next, so nothing piles up. (If you manage more than one profile, a For box above the question lets you choose who the plan is for.)

If the guide comes with files, the window says where they go, for example "2 files will be added to Avery's Documents."

Then choose one:

• Start with your goal named on the button, for example Start Household Management.
• Save the whole guide for later adds every goal to Up next and starts nothing.

Either way, the guide's files come with it.

All three focus spots already in use? The window says so. Start still works: Specthrive asks which goal to set aside first, and that goal keeps its progress in Up next. Or save the guide for later and start it another day.

Only want one goal? Each goal on the roadmap has its own Add to My Plan button, so you can take just the piece that fits. It waits in Up next until you start it. That goal's files come with it, and so do the files for the whole guide the first time you add a goal from it.

A few guides are part of a paid plan. If you open one of those, Specthrive tells you before anything is added.

If the guide changed while you were reading it, nothing is added. Specthrive says "This guide was just updated." and "Take another look and start again." If you were starting the whole guide, the window opens again with the goals as they are now. If the new version doesn't load, you see "Couldn't refresh this guide." and "Reload the page and try again."

If one of its files can't be copied right now, nothing is started either. You see "One of this guide's files isn't available right now. Nothing was started. Please try again in a few minutes."

4. Your first goal is ready

Specthrive takes you straight to your copy of the plan with your goal started. Its steps are ready to check off, and a card asks Want a finish date? Optional. Pick one if a date helps you, or choose No dates. Start your plan and check things off covers the finish date and everything after it.

Saved it for later instead? The plan opens with "Which goal do you want to start with?" and a Start button beside each goal. Nothing in it is due until you start something.

The guide's files are in Documents. Each copy is marked "Came with a guide", and anyone you share Documents with sees it too. A file that goes with a goal or a step also shows on that goal or step, under Documents, marked "From the guide". Files for the whole guide show on the plan itself.

It is yours now. Rename goals, delete steps that do not fit, and add your own. The guide itself stays unchanged, and if you open it again its button reads Go to Plan.

A guide shared with you by mistake can be taken back. The professional who shared it can remove it, and your timeline then shows a note headed "Just so you know", such as "Jordan removed a guide that was shared with you by mistake." If you had started it, the note adds "It's no longer in your plans. Everything else is just as you left it." If its files were in your documents, the note says "It's no longer in your plans or your documents." instead, or "It's no longer in your documents." when you hadn't started it. If nothing of it was with you, it says only "Everything else is just as you left it." The note doesn't name the guide. You didn't do anything wrong.

If a guide is taken back, its files go too. A professional who shared a guide with you by mistake can take it back, and the files that came with it are removed with it. If Specthrive ever has to remove one of those files, your timeline reads "File removed" and "Specthrive removed a file that came with a guide."