Portage

[RachA]

Has any one here done Portage with their lo? Just wanted to ask a few questions.

 

[Eoz]

yes i had a portage worker come to me for several weeks for my daughter and now my son is going down same route it looks like i will be getting it again.

what do you want to know?

 

[RachA]

Thanks.

We are on the waiting list for it at the moment and they think it's going to be quite a wait. Am i right in thinking they come to the house for a certain amount of time each week and they either bring a toy that's to be 'played' with during the week? Or else they use toys at the house if they are sufficient. Do they expect all other toys to be put away so as not to distract the child from what they are 'supposed' to be played with. The only reason i thought about that was because today i was trying to do jigsaws with her but she was distracted all the time by other toys in the lounge.

 

[Eoz]

Each week we had 2 hour visits.Every time she bought a huge bag full of toys.Nothing out of the ordinary probably toys you have around the house but they all help show a skill.For example she bought a doll,bath,pretend wash stuff to see how my daughter played on her own and if she knew what to do when asked.Another time she bought around peg boards to see if my dd could use a pincer grip.She bought shape sorters,bricks etc to see how she would grip the toys and also see how she reacted with them like smell them ,taste them etc Also a little lego playset with cooker and dinner bits to try to create a scene for play.She kept notes as she went along.

I kept the t.v off and yes cleared most of the toys away.Sometime i would sit in the room or i'd potter round the house.

Anther great thing she did for us was help us make flash cards.My daughter had no speech so she took pics of her favorite things and laminated them for us.She also set up a visual timetable which helped loads.Once we even met up at the local park so she could see her motor skills and social reactions.

I really miss her now shes gone as she did wonders for us and my daughter was sad to see her go x

 

[RachA]

Thanks for that.

How long did you come to you for? Did you daughter improve through the portage?

 

[Eoz]

It wasn't very long she was here weekly for 4 weeks then every f/night for another 8 weeks so 8 sessions or so in total.The main purpose of her coming was to work along side the Early years teacher to get a feel of how bad her needs were and also my daughter was about to have the weeks assessment so it was also to start sorting a report ready for that.

My daughter enjoyed it and her speech and awareness of strangers got better but I did feel it was to short and at times pointless but we did get the timetable in place and seeing the report helped me realise what my daughter needed more focusing on.

Can I ask why you are seeing someone ?

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I thought portage helped so much. They even managed to get my son a funded 1:1 helper at preschool. I really missed them when my son started school (They only go up to school age).

 

[RachA]

It wasn't very long she was here weekly for 4 weeks then every f/night for another 8 weeks so 8 sessions or so in total.The main purpose of her coming was to work along side the Early years teacher to get a feel of how bad her needs were and also my daughter was about to have the weeks assessment so it was also to start sorting a report ready for that.

My daughter enjoyed it and her speech and awareness of strangers got better but I did feel it was to short and at times pointless but we did get the timetable in place and seeing the report helped me realise what my daughter needed more focusing on.

Can I ask why you are seeing someone ?

Thanks

She's recently been assessed as having a developmental delay. Her motor skills are ok-just a couple of gaps but nothing major. Socially she isn't interacting with her peers but that is probably due to her lack of words. So it's mainly her language skills that are very behind. She will only say yes, no, hiya and bye-bye. She can say other words but she doesn't use them. She has had speech therapy and will be having more in the new year but they want to do portage to try and help along with one2one at Playschool.

 

[lisa35]

I have had portage for almost a year, their quite good at what they do. However we are now waiting on the ASCOS team taking over as they are supposed to be much more experienced to work with autistic children. They did say it can take months to fit me in. Why don't things move quicker? Arghhh.

 

[RachA]

It's so annoying how long it takes for things to get moving. There are such a large number of children who need things though i guess and i'm assuming their funding comes from the government as we don't pay for the sessions etc?? And if it does then they won't provide more staff etc as it'll cost too much.

We were wondering if portage was something you could pay for privately as we'd be prepared to pay if it would help (not that i'd know where we'd get the money from mind you).

What is ASCOC?

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

do you mean private diagnosis?

 

[RachA]

No - the actual portage sessions. Wondered if you could use private health insurance to get it.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Oh, I am not sure. I am pretty sure the waiting list would be the same to be honest because of the type of work they do.

I am surprised you had a wait though? They came straight out to me x

 

[RachA]

They are really over subscribed at the moment which is why we have to wait. The Child Development Centre are being good though and are putting us in a 6 week session at the CDC while we are waiting for the portage.