ABSTRACT
Since the late 1960s there has been accumulating evidence that children with various types of disadvantage, whether due to biological or social/psychological factors, can benefit in many ways from early intervention programmes, especially when parents actively participate. In early intervention programmes, children show substantial gains in intelligence quotients (IQ) and in other measures of development during the first year of services. These gains match or surpass the developmental level of non-handicapped children of similar age. IQ gains then reappear when the child is around 12 or 13 years of age. In many projects, younger children are typically served once older children who have been on waiting lists have been provided a service. M. Miles has suggested that Portage is too reporter orientated’ requiring too much writing to be suitable for community workers with limited education. In 1989 the International Portage Association was as a result of global demand.
