ABSTRACT
For some parents, the experience of having a handicapped child comes as a sudden and shattering shock. Parents will react quite differently to this, but one thing they all have in common is an immediate realisation that they are going to experience many different problems in raising their children, problems that will be additional to the normal experience of parenthood. For other parents, their children do not immediately present as handicapped, and they experience a gradual awareness of some worrying problems that they seem to have with their child and their friends in the play group or local supermarket do not. Unusual behaviours, unusual or delayed language, unexpected tantrums, lack of affection and many other problems may emerge, and however much one may want to believe the friendly advice of a next-door neighbour saying ‘Never mind, mine didn't talk till they were nearly two’, the parents know that all is not well, and they must seek advice and help.
