More Information about a Portage Visitor
A portage home visitor (or portage worker), provides a home-visiting service for pre-school children with developmental or learning difficulties, physical disabilities or other special needs. They help parents to encourage their children's development by suggesting activities and daily routines to make learning fun.
Their work includes:
- observing the child and talking to the parents to identify the skills the child already has
- deciding with the parents which skills are most important for the child's future learning
- suggesting a programme of activities for the parents and child to practise together
- breaking down tasks that are difficult or take a long time into small steps
- providing an activity chart or notebook for parents to record their child's progress
- visiting each week to check on progress and agree on new goals
- writing progress reports and working with the parents to develop long-term goals.
They work closely with other professionals, such as health visitors, social workers, physiotherapists and speech therapists.
A Portage Visitor must have experience of working with children under the age of five, and an understanding of child development. They would also usually need one of the following:
- a relevant professional qualification such as teaching, social work or nursing
- an early years qualification such as NVQ Level 3 in Early Years Care and Education.
