Special Love for a Special Individual.docVIP

Special Love for a Special Individual 　　CHEN Xudong isin the thirdmonth of his cleaning job at aMcDonalds in northern Beijing.The 19-year-old busses tables,clearing leftovers into waste bins in thecorner,on the go all the time.His aptnessmakes it hard to imagine the difficultieshe had getting this far in life. 　　Xudong was two before he couldwalk,sort of,and five or six before hecould say single words.It took until hewas 15 before he could communicate nor-mally, recalled the boys mother WangQian.He was slower in learning almosteverything than other kids of his age.Tests confirmed that her son had intel-lectual impairment. 　　Chinas second national survey on dis-abilities,conducted in 2oo6,found thatthe total number of people with disabili-ties of one kind or another exceeded 83.1million.The number of families affectedwas 70.5 million,representing 17.8 per-cent of all Chinese households. 　　 　　The Importance ofCommunicating Happiness 　　 　　It is excruciating for any couple to ac-cept that their darling baby is different.On learning of the childs situation,theparents first response is to feel like thesky has fallen in on them, said Liu Yan-hong,a special education professor withBeijing Normal University (BNU).Aftercoming round from the emotional shock,the majority face up to the problem andseek medical help in the dim hope offinding a cure.When medicine cannotprovide the answer they accept reality. 　　Wang Qian went through this pro-cess herself.My husband and I wouldbe eaten up with anxiety whenever ourson reached a new development stage.For instance,I had to show him dozensof times how to tie his shoelaces beforehe could do it on his own,whereas otherkids would master it in a couple of goes. 　　The stress intensified as her son grew.In 2000 the couple eventually enrolledXudong,by then nine years old,into aregular primary school,three years laterthan the normal starting age.We hopedhe could grow up in an environment nodifferent from that of other children,whe