A round table on the results of the second pilot “Portage” project of the Center for Curative Pedagogy and Differential Learning (CCP) of the Pskov Region was held in Pskov on October 13. This meeting set an important milestone in the Russian Portage community. Another team of Portage experts has moved to a new level. Now they are practice specialists. We congratulate all the participants of the pilot project. We are proud of you! Now there are 15 teams – 9 consists of practice specialists, and 6 teams are parts of pilot projects – in our country under the auspices of our foundation.
In addition to the specialists of this year’s pilot project team, the round table was attended by a team of Portage practice specialists from the Pskov CCP, which took part of the last year pilot project, as well as the pilot project team from Bobrovsky Orphanage.
Andrey Mikhailovich Tsarev, Director of the CCP, one of the country’s leading experts in helping children with severe and multiple developmental disabilities and the head of the Federal Resource Center of comprehensive support for children with intellectual disabilities, severe and multiple developmental disabilities, greeted the audience and gave the opening speech.
Then Elena Volodina, director of Diema’s Dream Fund spoke about the history of the Portage methodology, explained how it is growing in Russia. She mentioned the creation of a public association of Portage experts, that soon will be transformed into an association. Elena A. Volodina drew the attention of the audience to the fact that during the pandemic most people had to communicate online, there were held a lot of online conferences, so that is how the idea of providing the team with laptops was born.
The director of the foundation gave to the Portage specialists from Pskov 4 new laptops out of 10 purchased by our foundation for the Portage teams with the support of the fund’s partner which is F.O.N. LLC (TM “Fonbet”). We are grateful to our partner for this kind help! Now, using these laptops, Portage experts will be able to communicate with colleagues in other regions during a pandemic, and to take part in an online conference. It is really important for them because unlike other Portage teams all over the country, the Portage specialists from the Pskov CCP are working with children who live at home with the family. During the period of pandemic, the specialists of the pilot Portage project gave tasks to mothers of children online, and checked task completion the same way, via the modern means of communication. Now they will be able to support families with the help of new and powerful laptops.
The head of the pilot Portage project and also the head of the preschool department of the CCP which is “Lesovichok” kindergarten, Elena Arlamova, spoke about the results that were achieved by the team of the project over the past year. Oksana Petunova’s team included 5 employees of “Lesovichok” kindergarden for children 3-8 years old and the early assistance department employees as well. There were two defectologist teachers, one tutor, one kindergarten teacher and one physical education instructor. Elena N. Arlamova explained that this project included children with various developmental disabilities in the most severe manifestations. It was done to later use the best practices to help all the other children. In total, 16 children aged 2-8 years were participated in the project. 8 of them have cerebral palsy, two of them have ASD, one of them have Down’s syndrome, four children have MCDD and one of children has genetic disorders.
During the year, there were held 1570 trainings, children figured out 223 skills of cognition, movement, self-service, socialization, speech, and communication (common people have more than 600 skills). According to Elena Arlamova, children with multiple complex developmental disorder have a developmental delay. A child with MCDD at the age of 8 is on the level of a 1-4-year-old child. That is why results of the projects are so surprisingly amazing. Children learned, for example, how to eat with a spoon, how to drink from a cup, how to zip up. They understand the prepositions “over, under, in”, play bingo, distinguish colors, use a potty, and so much more. The quality of life of children became better.
Portage specialists received many thanks from parents. The project manager was happy to share their feedback with the audience:
“Thank you very much! Sasha’s condition has a positive trend this year. We learned how to use a potty, we stopped using diapers, we are eating with a fork and spoon, drinking from a mug, using the scissors, drawing lines, learn how to count to 10, we are learning poems and singing. Whenever we are hearing the doorbell, we are always waiting for Oksana to come, and Sasha is always happy to see her!”
“During this year, we played a lot, he has learned to sit and crawl, learned how to clap. He is drinking from a cup, play with blocks and much more. Sergei is happy when Antonina comes to us and gives us new tasks. We are achieving a big goal with small steps!”
It is a pleasure to see that parents live by of the principles of Portage – achieving a big goal with small steps. This means we are achieving a great goal together!