HANDICAPPED CHILDREN - WHO ARE THEY?

There are a variety of diagnoses: mentally handicapped, physically handicapped, autistic, deaf, blind, partially sighted, cerebral palsy, brain damage, and many many more. While we concentrate on the theme of the role of children's literature in integrating handicapped children into everyday life, it is not the handicap itself which interests us but the effect the handicap has on the development of speech and the ability to read and understand books.

Most handicapped children will be delayed in their language development. Consequently they will probably have problems with their emotional as well as with their social development. And they may have reading difficulties as well. In addition we have dyslectic children, those with reading difficulties as their primary problem. We also have all the children who are functioning as language deficient and reading retarded, as, for example, immigrant children and the increasing number of culturally deprived children. These groups together amount to a large percentage of all children in the world.

First and foremost they are children, with children's basic needs, in addition they are handicapped and this creates the need for books to further their language development and also their social and emotional growth. They can use some of our ordinary children's books, but they will also need books especially made for them.

Rather than concentrate on each individual handicap, we should identify the common problem shared by many handicapped children, that is to say, they are language retarded:

• - Either because they are deaf, or have difficulties in hearing, in which case they have only a slight possibility to imitate the spoken word.
• - Or they are mentally handicapped, so that our words are too difficult for them. They have, of course, just as great a need for experiences and development as everyone else.
• - Or because they suffer from developmental dysphasia, or are autistic, so that they cannot comprehend words as means of communication.
• - Or they are blind and have problems in understanding the numerous words which are related to sight and the experience of seeing.

For most of us, speech is the link by which we make contact with others. Our entire social and intellectual development is dependent on well developed speech and it is difficult to imagine how problematic learning situations become when one cannot use words or abstract ideas as aids for instruction in the widest sense, including upbringing and all learning.

The role played by language in our development is best understood when we come together with these children who have different language problems and whose difficulties increase year by year. For them, teaching must concentrate on learning words, which are the most important instruments of the mind.

Experience has shown that lullabyes and rhymes may stimulate language for those who can hear the human voice, and that picture books as well stimulate language development for those who can see. All children need books. But our handicapped children need them even more than do other children.