There are many different personal books from parents who tell about their experiences with raising their mentally handicapped child.

Jan
Jan Eradus has a son with the Down’s syndrome. He wrote two books with short stories, combined with enchanting poems about his son. The titles are: "Hebben jullie dat nou ook?" and "Ben jij dat meisje met dat debiele broertje?". Translated in English it means: ‘Do you have that too?’ and 'Are you the sister of that retarded brother'. You can order the books at the website: www.bink.nl/eradus
At our website you can look at ‘extra’ and push on the button ‘poems’. Here you can find some of the poems of Jan Eradus, which we translated in English.

Aat
Another nice book to read is:
"Aat, een verstandelijk gehandicapte op weg naar zelfstandigheid" written by Anna Nederlof. It means: ‘Aat, a mentally handicapped person on his way to independence.’

Aat is (in 2004) 32 years old and lives at home with his mother (who is 68 now) in the house VINK.
At the website: www.mugmetdegoudentand.nl you can find the next information in Dutch.
"Anna wants to build a fosterhome in the houses around Aat. There is space left in that house, for a mentally or other handicapped person and two assistants. In this situation, there is a public living room, two bedrooms, one little room for one competent mentor for the night, and one public linen room. First, Anna wants to accompany Aat by herself, but after a while, make him independent so that she can live, for the first time in 43 years, without children. She prefers to have a house for elderly in the ‘Stiltehotel’. ‘’

Hint: You can find more personal stories and poems in your own public library.