ABSTRACT
Friends and teachers will lecture parents on the importance of recognizing their limits, the immense strength to be gained from trusting those around them to be helpful in a moment of need. Therefore, if is always right to risk labelling a child as needing help, provided this help is necessary and useful. It should not really make any difference whether the child needs special education or hearing aids. What most often stops a parent from seeking help is not social prejudices, the fear that the child will be "labelled", but serious problems of parental self-doubt and self-confidence. If they have a person or agency that they trust, the whole problem should disappear. If parents have recurrent nightmares and seek help from a psychiatrist, there is no doubt that his or her views will be very different from those of their priest.
