Portage- what are your experiences?

[Timepasses]

My ds is 2.2 and has a speech delay. We have just been referred to portage by his speech therapist. Would just like to ask others of their experiences. Why was your dc referred? has portage helped? What should we expect? Thanks very much.

I have done Portage twice. The first time was from age 9mos to 3yrs for my TDD (tds joined in too). Very successful as I was pretty clueless as to how to play with them. Fastforward 9 yrs and we did it again for DS4. I self referred this time as I felt that he had undxd ASD (he does). Portage was great for him in a different way than than for the twins. Also the Portage workers develop a good relationship with you too. The last one helped me with his DLA form. They both made great recommendations, were patient, full of praise for the progress made and earned my dc trust. Use Portage, but you will only have it term time and until your DS is 3.

My thumb hit the button by mistake. I meant to put in a , so now I am ing!!

Sallybear, thank you for replying. I am
Glad you had very positive experiences. How old was ds4 when you referred him to portage. I am concerned that my ds has other problems other than a speech delay.

I referred him at 16mos and he started at 18mos due to summer holidays. Portage
if your SLT has referred him, then I suspect there maybe some Sensory Issues. All help is positively received

Sallybear. Thank you. I will take a look at the website.

Does anyone else have any experiences?

we had portage for dd3 and it was absolutely fab for her. She has a genetic syndrome and at the time may have had a GDD label (can't remember now!) there was a long waiting list and it stopped as soon as she went to preschool, so before she was 3! The first visit they have a portage checklist they will go through with you which covers all areas of development and that will then indicate which things they will work on. They generally have a huge heap of different resources and they'll lend whatever you need for what you are working on at the time. Ours used to visit every 2 weeks and would leave homework for the next visit but dd3 used to think she was a lovely lady who came to play with her, it never felt like work.

Hi, portage for us was fab too... a real life saver while we went through the dx and statementing process, and for everday stuff too...

PS it may be worth checking with your portage service, as in our area it continued until school. (we were able to count it as one of our 5 pre-school sessions (from the 15 funded hours), and it was much more useful to ds and to us than a 5th session at pre-school.) .

Ds loved our portage worker, and both she and I had tears in out eyes when we finally had to finish...

Wow. Thanks for the replies. I am so glad we have been referred. It sounds like it will be a major help for us. We have had 2 sessions with a slt and we are waiting to hear about our first portage session. Can't wait to get started.

In scotland portage is VTSS (Visiting Teaching Support Service). Sadly tho mine is v nice and delivers useful info regarding services and benefits, I find her pretty useless in terms of therapy or appraoches to D. She has just one way of trying to engage D and D doesnt tend to go for it so... blah!

Lots of stuff like showing D things hand over hand for example I discovered myself - I think she could ahve told me to try these things. Also with signing etc she just goes on and on about repetition when D seems oblivious to it - I now have from 3 other sources that you need some kind of 'in' with a child before repetition makes sense. I tend to believe these others. She goes on about over-scheduling when I ask what else we might do for D - I find her appraoch v much geared towards the assumption of social deprivation and not enough towrads developmental delay for some other reason. So she rocks up with her toys and tries them all out on D - who is quietly bemused by this strange strange woman.

She is sweet tho... and I hope your experience is better

In my area unless you are referred before 18 months the waiting list is huge and you are lucky to get to the top. They offer sen coffee morning for those on the list, which you then find out that the waiting list is meant to be top of the list but like most things those who shout the loudest get seen. Mine was nice for the short period we had portage but it was her knowledge and contacts that where most helpful.

DS had portage when he was 3 for 9 months, once every two weeks. best thing we could have done. in that time he was classed as GDD (undx for ASD), non verbal to a few words and understanding alot, so soon dropped his GDD. Ds not impressed with to start with, but got into the swing of it, and gave up having tantums and got on with the task. She really connected to ds and both enjoyed the session, it was just what he needed. She also made suggestions and was v. supportive in general. Even came into the nursery to show them how to work with ds, came to meetings and talked the most sense.

We made a little workstation, v. hand on hand, different games. She always read ds a story at the end and gave some homework (so if working on colours, left us a game they had used for colours). did about six activities a session. quick chat at the end of each session.

Spiraling. Thanks for sharing. The general consensus seems to be very positive. My ds has only 5 words so I am hoping ( and praying) that the sessions will help his speech. His eye contact has really improved in the last 2 months and he seems more aware and interested in us as parents.

Another positive experience here. DD2 was 15 months when she started portage and did it until she was 2.5yrs.

We had an amazing portage teacher who empowered me. She came laden with games and appropriate toys each week and basically showed me what we wanted to achieve. By coming every week it kept me motivated to do the exercises and games each day.

Portage definately kicked started our progress.

Hi my DS1 has GDD, suspected generic cause but part of this is speech delay: he only has 4 words and uses makaton signing.

He's had portage for 8 months (he's 3.5 now) and our last session is next week . It's been fantastic. Sessions every week with homework but as mentioned above, DS1 loves his portage worker and is nearly always obliging and wants to play the games she brings. She's had to work v hard as he's hard to motivate but we've had lots of success.

I wish he'd got it at 2 when he was referred, we waited till he was almost 3 for a place so if you can get one soon I say grab it. Round our way it is supposed to end when DC becomes eligible for the 15 hours of funded preschool and we were lucky it was extended due to the ridiculously long wait. I'm sure he would have made lots more progress had we had it longer.

My son's portage worker felt like one of the family. She was a real help to us not just with my son's development but she also knew all of the other professionals in the area and would speak up on our behalf. I only had to mention to her that I was having trouble getting in touch with someone and that person would be in contact the very next day. My son went on the waiting list at birth because it was expected that he would have developmental delays and he had made it to the top of the list around 18 months which was just the right time.

I cannot rate them highly enough.

Fab, fab, fab!

I agree that our Portage worker became one of the family. She helped with any problem that we had. Now DS is at school and she visits him mainly there I really miss her coming.

Our portage worker was from a specialist communication team. She has helped DS learn how to communicate. She has endless ideas and endless patience and resources.