John Parry and Jonty Rix (The Open University)

John Parry was a Portage Coordinator in West Sussex for many years and Jonty Rix is a parent who received Portage for his son and was an advisor on the recent Pathfinder project for the DfE.

‘In the Picture’ is an innovative approach supporting communication between adults and children. This approach was recently developed by researchers at the Open University in their studies of very young children with learning difficulties.

It involves taking photographs of the child’s focus during play alongside the making of first-person narrative observations of their activities.

The photographs are shared with the children after the observation sessions and also discussed with the family and other practitioners.

‘In the Picture’ has been used in studies of home based early intervention programmes with young children labelled with SEND; children’s friendships in early years settings; and the Bookstart corner programme. In interviews practitioners who used the approach highlighted how it improved their communication with children, sharpened their focus and made them more aware of the children’s relationships.

In this session, John and Jonty give a flavour of the approach and discuss how it might be used as part of Portage practice, particularly to support transition into settings.   

This seminar stimulated a lot of discussion and debate, however Q&A’s are not included in the recording. References to further research are given at the end of the Powerpoint.