What is portage?

[dukester]

Also who is entitilled to to it, and has anyone any personnal expericences of this they could share with me. This was recomened to me by a friend for DS.

I am portage trained, it involves someone coming to your house and doing activities with your child that helps them develop in certain areas. You then carry on the activities, it involves taking a skill and breaking it down into an achievable series of short steps.

webiste here

Hi, google portage and you will get the main website and can follow on to find your local area.

Portage is a gentle play based learning 'system' to encourage development in children with delays or special needs. When I say learning, I don't mean the 3 r's. My DS had to be taught how to play appropriately, portage worker helped both of us learn Makaton, advised with DLA forms generally supportd the family as well - kept me fairly sane!

We started with treasure baskets and descriptive/commentary and progressed to 4 colour matching within a year. P worker sets a task weekly/fortnightly and leaves you the relevant tou/item and you do your 'homework' daily (if you can fit it in, it is better)or whenever.

You do not have to be referred by a professional (GP/HV) you can call up and refer yourselves if you have a concern about your DS.

Thankyou so much, going to give them a ring first thing see if I can get some.

We had Portage for nearly 2 years and it was amazing. Our Portage worker became a really good friend and DD loved her. The sessions were great fun yet did so much for her.

In our area the criteria for Portage is that a pre-school child/baby has to have a delay in 2 developmental areas.