. When meeting new people, the handicapped child does not know if that person could give the same love and support as their parents do. The home constitutes the basic unit in a community. It is here that the observations are made and that the decisions and plans for the child must be formulated. With the help of the community agencies, the parents obtain the needed assistance to let their handicapped child become socially independent. From my own experiences, I have baby-sat two children. One whoyoucan call the “normal” child whose name is Amanda and the other who was mentally handicapped whose name is Lisa. Once their mother had left the house Amanda adjusted very easily. She went over to her play house and quickly amused herself. Lisa grew angry the minuteher mother stepped foot out of the door. Lisa was not comfortablewith me in the house. Her dependent was her mother and she had no idea if I could give her the love and support that her mother gives her. I tried to reassure her that mommy was coming back and I will help her with anything she needs. Reassurance was not enough for Lisa. She cried the whole 4 hours that her mother was gone. If thiswas another child that did not have a handicap, I would have easily gotten aggravated. Since I knew about Lisa’s handicap I tried my best to deal with her. I tried playing with her, reading to her, trying to get her sister to play with her but nothing worked. Even though I showed her the love and support her mother gave her, I was still not her mother. This experience made me understand the needs of ahandicapped child. It is not at all an easy job. Not all handicaps are physical or mental. There are some handicaps that you could not recognize with the eye. In consideringdeafness we are dealing with a disability of unique complexity. It isalways tempting to think in terms of handicap as a matter of damage to a particular organ. Nowhere in the whole field of handicap ca...
