ssessment. Using this assessment information, the home teacher and parent target skills and behaviors to be taught. Typically, about four specific behaviors are selected during each weekly home visit.If a family suspects their child may have a disability, they are usually referred to a program that uses the Portage model. The parents bring the child to the location for assessment. If the association determines that the child has an intellectual disability, it will recommend the family use the Portage kit. The Portage kit includes an Activity Card File that consists of 580 developmentally sequenced behaviors from birth to age six in five areas: Socialization, Self-Help, Language, Cognition, and Motor Skills (Bluma, Shearer, Frohman, & Hilliard, 1976). The parents are taught how to use the cards to advance their child's development. The activity cards and guidelines are designed to use play and daily routines to support the child's development and to incorporate developmental skills into activities of everyday life. Another key to the Portage Kit is keeping a checklist to track the child's progress. In addition, this is used to guide and monitor the child's development. For example, pretend that a three-year-old female is suspected of having a disability. The parents have already notified an appropriate association and have received the Portage Kit. Because this child has never obtained a previous standardized test score, the parents begin testing her at skills that are one age level below her chronological age. As the parents begin the testing, she should be able to perform the first 10-15 skills. If not, the parents need to start the project at a lower age level. They continue testing until she reaches a point where she can no longer perform the next 10-15 skills. This stopping point signifies where the learned skills have ended and the teaching should begin. Through the years, the Portage Project has made some changes t...
