What Parents Say

 Portage is the island of calm in the sea of chaos that I live.  

 My Portage Home Visitor is the glue that holds us together.  

 Portage is the only service that visits that is stress free.  

From a parent using the Portage Service in Hampshire

 Portage has been absolutely fantastic for my daughter, Amy, and I would thoroughly and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone appropriate for it. It was a very sad day when our Portage Home Visitor came to see us for the last time in her professional capacity last summer.

Through all the good days and bad, the fifteen hospital consultants, umpteen doctors, specialist care providers, four hospitals and everyone else we had to deal with she came, week in, week out, to provide help and support for me. More importantly, she always treated Amy as a child, not a patient or someone on her caseload. She always focussed on what Amy could do and built on that rather than what she could not do. She has become a really good pal.

In Autumn 2004 Amy started school on a part time basis gradually increasing her sessions to full time. She will be five soon and, bearing in mind she has been in intensive care six times and been through so much, I am so proud of her.

Portage really gave me the confidence and the knowledge to draw out the very best from her and she is now a positive and happy child who takes great delight in everything going on around her.  

From a parent using the Portage Service in Dorset

 I am writing to tell you about our experience with the Portage Service in Dorset since my younger daughter was diagnosed as autistic a year ago. After an initial assessment visit, we were assigned our Portage worker and Deb began her weekly visits.

Deb quickly established a good rapport with my daughter. Goals were drawn up which reflected areas that my daughters speech therapist wanted us to work on, but also incorporated areas that we, as parents, were concerned about. My daughter has benefited from having home visits from someone she has come to know and to like. Her autism means that she likes stability and security and being able to work at home gives her the confidence to try new things. She has made great progress over the last year and the Portage Service has been a major factor in his progress.

I cannot speak highly enough of the service and the benefits it has given to us as a family. I know we have all been very lucky to have met such an excellent Portage Worker and we will all be very sad to lose Deb when my daughter starts school. I would thoroughly recommend the service to any family with an autistic child as it seems to be ideally suited to her needs.  

 It has helped me because I can see the improvements and it has given me confidence in my ability to help him  

 It is done at home within the best environment for one-to-one teaching. Everyone is relaxed which makes things so much easier  

 It has taught me to take things gradually. Before Portage, I expected to see an immediate response to certain things. Now I accept the little things which will add up to succeeding in one big thing later  

 I look forward very much to my weekly visit. You don't feel isolated and you know that if you have anything you're worried about, you can discuss it.